alifornia 
jional 


COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY   GERMANIC  STUDIES 
VOL.  I.      No.  IV. 


THE  INFLUENCE 


OF 


INDIA  AND   PERSIA 


ON     THF. 


BY 

ARTHUR    F.    J.    REMY,    A.M.,    Pn.D. 

SOMETIME    FELLOW    IN    COMPARATIVE    PHILOLOGY 
COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY    > 


Btfaj  Norli 

THE    COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 
Tin;  MACMILI.AN  CO.MTANY,  AGENTS 

66    KIKTH    AVKNUE 

1901 


TO 

PROF.    WIU.IAM  II.   CARPENTER,   PH.!). 

PROF.    CALVIN  THOMAS,   A.M. 
PROF.   A.   V.    WILLIAMS  JACKSON.    L.H.D.,    Pn.D. 

OK    COI.UMIilA     I'MVKKSITY    IN    THK    CITY    OF    NKW    YORK 
IN    liRATITUDE 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA 


PREFACE. 

The  Oriental  movement  which  manifested  itself  so  strikingly 
in  German  literature  during  the  nineteenth  century  is  familiar 
to  every  student  of  that  literature.  Although  the  general 
nature  of  this  movement  is  pretty  clearly  understood,  no  sys- 
tematic investigation  of  it,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  been 
undertaken.  *  In  the  following  pages  an  attempt  is  made  to 
trace  the  influence  which  the  Indo-Iranian  East — the  Semitic 
part  is  not  considered — exerted  on  German  poetry.  The 
work  does  not  claim  to  be  exhaustive  in  the  sense  that  it  gives 
a  list  of  all  the  poets  that  ever  came  under  that  influence. 
Nor  does  it  pretend  to  be  anything  like  a  complete  catalogue 
of  the  sources  whence  the  poets  derived  their  material.  The 
performance  of  such  a  task  would  have  required  far  more 
time  and  space  than  were  at  my  disposal.  A  selection  was 
absolutely  necessarv.  It  is  hoped  that  the  material  presented 
in  the  case  of  each  poet  is  sufficient  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  tin- 
extent  to  which  he  was  subject  to  Oriental  influence,  as  well 
as  of  the  part  that  he  took  in  the  movement  under  discussion. 

It  is  my  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  the  obligations  under 
which  I  am  to  various  scholars.  In  the  first  place,  mv  sincere 
thanks  are  due  to  Professor  Jackson,  at  whose  suggestion  this 
investigation  was  undertaken  and  whose  encouragement  and 
advice  have  never  been  wanting.  I  am  also  indebted  for  help- 
ful suggestions  to  Professors  Carpenter  and  Thomas  of  the 
Germanic  department,  who  kindlv  volunteered  to  read  the 
proof-sheets.  Furthermore,  1  wish  to  thank  Mr.  Vohannan  for 
assistance  rendered  in  connection  with  the  transliteration  of 
some  of  the  lithographic  editions  of  Persian  authors.  And. 
finally.  I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Grav  for  the  use 
of  several  rare  volumes  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
inaccessible  to  me. 

AKTHTK    F.    |.    RI.MY. 

New  York,  May  i,  iqoi. 


LIST  OF  WORKS  MOST  FREQUENTLY  CONSULTED. 

Baharistan.  The  Beharistan  by  Jami.  Printed  by  the  Kama 
Shastra  Society  for  Private  Subscribers  only.  Benares, 
1887. 

Bhartrhari.  Satakatrayam,  2d  ed.  Nirnaya  Sagara  Press. 
Bombay,  1891. 

Quotations  are  from  this  edition. 

t 

Bodenstedt,  Friedr.  Martin.     Gesammelte  Schriften.     12  Bde. 

Berlin,  1865. 

Tausend  und  ein  Tag  im  Orient  in  vols.  i  and  ii. 
References  to  Mirza  Schaffy  songs  are  based  on  this  edition. 

Firdausi.      See  Shah  Namah. 

Goethe's  Werke.      36  Bde.      Berlin  (Hempel),  1879. 

Quotations  are  from  this  edition. 
Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie.      Hrsg.  von  W.  Geiger 

und  E.  Kuhn.      Strassburg,  1896  -  — . 
Gulistan.       The   Gulistan   of  Shaikh   Muslihu'd  din    Sa'dl  of 

Shiraz,  ed.  John  Platts.      2d  ed.      London,  1874. 
Quotations  are  from  this  edition. 

-   or    Rose    garden.       Printed    by    the    Kama    Shastra 
Society  for  Private  Subscribers  only.     Benares,  1888. 
Hafid.     Die  Lieder  des  Hafis.     Persisch  mit  dem  Commentare 
des  Sudi  hrsg.  von  Herm.  Brockhaus.      Leipzig,  1863. 
Quotations  are  from  this  edition. 

Hammer,  Jos.  von.  Geschichte  der  schonen  Redekiinste  Per- 
siens,  mit  einer  Bliithenlese  aus  zweyhundert  persischen 
Dichtern.  Wien,  1818. 

Heine.      Heinrich  Heines  samtliche  Werke  in  12  Bden.     Stutt- 
gart (Cotta),  s.  a. 
Herder.      Sammtliche  Werke,  ed.  Bernhard  Suphan.     32  Bde. 

Berlin,  1877. 

Hitopadesa.  The  Hitopades'a  of  Narayana  Pandit,  ed.  Goda- 
bole  and  Parab.  3d  ed.  Nirn.  Sag.  Press.  Bombay, 
1890. 

Quotations  are  from  this  edition. 

vi 


Jackson,  A.  V.  Williams.      Zoroaster,  the  Prophet  of  ancient 

Iran.      New  York,  1899. 
Mohl.      See  Shah  Namah. 
Piper,  Paul.      Hofische  Epik.     4  pts.      KDNL.  iv. 

—  Spielmannsdichtung.      2  pts.      KDNL.  ii. 
Platen.      Platens  samtliche  Werke.      Stuttgart  (Cotta),  s.  a. 
References  are  based  on  this  edition. 

Rlickert.      Friedrich  Riickert's  gesammelte  poetische  Werke. 

12  Bde.      Fkft.  a.  M.,  1882. 
References  are  based  on  this  edition. 

Schack,  Ad.  Friedr.  Graf  von.      Gesammelte  Werke.     3  Aufl. 

10  Bde.      Stuttgart,  1897. 
Shah   Namah.       Firdusii   Liber  Regium  qui  inscribitur  Shah 

Name,   ed.   Vullers   (et   Landauer).       Tom.    3.       Lugd. 

1877-1884. 
-  Le  Livre  des  Rois  par  Abou'l  Kasim  Firdousi,  traduit 

et  commente  par  Jules  Mohl.       7   vols.      Paris,    1876- 

1878. 


ABBREVIATIONS. 


BLVS.      .     .     . 
Bohtl.        .     .     . 

Grdr.  Iran.  Phil. 

Gul 

H 

H.  E 

JAOS.       .     .     . 
KDNL.     .     .     . 

K.  S.    .     . 
Red 

Sh.  N.       .     .     . 
ZDMG. 


Bibliothek    des    Litterarischen    Vereins    in 

Stuttgart.   Tubingen. 
Otto    Bohtlingk,     Indische     Spriiche,     St. 

Petersburg,  1870-1873.      2  Aufl.      3  Bde. 
Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie. 
Gulistfm,  ed.  Platts. 
Hafid,  ed.  Brockhaus. 
Hofische  Epik,  ed.  Piper  in  KDNL. 
Journal  American  Oriental  Society. 
Deutsche     National-Litteratur,     ed.     Jos. 

Kiirschner.      (Berlin)  u.    Stuttgart. 
Translations  of  the  Gulistan  and  Baharistan, 

printed  for  the  Kama  Shastra  Society. 
Geschichte  der   schonen   Redekiinste   Per- 

siens. 

Shah  Namah. 
Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen 

Gesellschaft. 


vni 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Page 

Information  of  Mediaeval  Europe  concerning  India  and 
Persia — Travellers — India  and  Persia  in  Mediaeval 
German  Poetry,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  i 

CHAPTER  II. 

FROM    THE.  PORTUGUESE     DISCOVERIES    TO    THE    TIME    OK 
SIR    WILLIAM    JONES. 

Travels  to  India  and  Persia — Olearius  and  his  Work — 
Progress  of  Persian  Studies — Roger — India's  Lan- 
guage and  Literature  remain  unknown — Oriental 
Influence  in  German  Literature,  ....  9 

CHAPTER   III. 
HERDER. 

Herder's  Interest  in  the  Orient — Fourth  Collection  of  his 
Zerstreute  Blatter — His  Didactic  Tendencv  and 
Predilection  for  Sa'dl,  .  .  .16 

CHAPTER   IV. 

GOETHE. 

Enthusiasm  for  Sakuntalfi — Der  Gott  mid  die  Bajadere: 
der  Paria — -Goethe's  Aversion  for  Hindu  Mythol- 
ogy— Origin  of  the  Divan — Oriental  Character  of  tin- 
Work —  Inaugurates  the  Oriental  Movement.  .  .  20 

CHAPTER    V. 

SCHII.I.ER. 

Schiller's  Interest  in  Sakuntalft — Turandot.        .  .      2<S 

ix 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SCHLEGELS. 

Page 

Friedrich  Schlegel's  Weisheit  der  Indier — Foundation  of 

Sanskrit  Study  in  Germany,       ...  -3° 

CHAPTER  VII. 

PLATEN. 

His  Oriental  Studies — Ghaselen — Their  Persian  Charac- 
ter— Imitation  of  Persian  Form — Translations,  .  32 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

RUCKERT. 

His  Oriental  Studies — Introduces  the  Ghasele — Ostliche 
Rosen ;  Imitations  of  Hand — Erbauliches  und  Beschau- 
liches — Morgenlandische  Sagen  und  Geschichten — 
Brahmanische  Erzahlungen — Die  Weisheit  des  Brah- 
manen — Other  Oriental  Poems,  .  .  .  38 

CHAPTER  IX. 
HEINE. 

Becomes  Interested  in  India  through  Schlegel— Influence 
of  India's  Literature  on  his  Poetry — Interest  in  the 
Persian  Poets — Persian  Influence  on  Heine — His 
Attitude  toward  the  Oriental  Movement,  .  .  -57 

CHAPTER  X. 

B  O  D  E  N  S  T  E  D  T  . 

Lieder  des  Mirza  Schaffy — Are  Original  Poems — Nach- 
lass — Aus  Morgenland  und  Abendland — Sakuntala, 
a  Narrative  Poem,  .......  64 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    MINOR    ORIENTALIZING     POETS. 

Some    less    known    Poets    who    attempted    the    Oriental 

Manner,      .          .          .          .          .          .          .          .          -I2 


XI 

CHAPTER  XII. 
VON  SCHACK. 

Page 

His  Fame  as  Translator  of  FirdausI — Stimmen  vom 
Ganges — Sakuntala,  compared  with  the  Original  in 
the  Mahiibhiirata — His  Oriental  Scholarship  in  his 
Original  Poems— Attitude  towards  Hafizian  Singers,  74 

CHAPTKR  XIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Summary  of  Results  Attained — Persian  Tendency  predomi- 
nates over  Indie — Reason  for  this — Estimate  of  the  Value 
of  the  Oriental  Movement  in  German  Literature.  79 


TRANSCRIPTION. 

For  the  transcription  of  Sanskrit  words  the  system  of  the 
Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  Morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft  has 
been  followed;  for  that  of  Persian  words  the  system  of  the 
Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie  has  been  adopted,  with 
some  variations  however,  e.  g.  c  is  indicated  by  '.  To  be  con- 
sistent, such  familiar  names  as  Hafiz  and  Nizam!  appear  as» 
Hafid  and  Nidaml;  Omar  Khayyam  as  'Umar  Xayyam ;  and 
the  word  ghazal,  the  German  G/iase/e,  is  written  yazal. 


CHAPTER    I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

INFORMATION  OF  MEDIAEVAL  EUROPE  CONCERNING  INDIA  AND 
PERSIA — TRAVELLERS — INDIA  AND  PERSIA  IN  MEDI.KVAL 
GERMAN  POETRY. 

The  knowledge  which  mediaeval  Europe  had  of  India  and 
Persia  was  mostly  indirect,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  defi- 
cient both  in  correctness  and  extent,  resting,  as  it  did,  on  the 
statements  of  classical  and  patristic  writers,  on  hearsay  and 
on  oral  communication.  In  the  accounts  of  the  classic  writers, 
especially  in  those  of  Pliny,  Strabo,  Ptolemy,  truth  and  fiction 
were  already  strangely  blended.  Still  more  was  this  the  case 
with  such  compilers  and  encyclopaedists  as  Solinus,  Cassio- 
dorus  and  Isidorus  of  Sevilla,  on  whom  the  mediaeval  scholar 
depended  largely  for  information.  All  these  writers,  in  so 
far  as  they  speak  of  India,  deal  almost  entirely  with  its  physical 
description,  its  cities  and  rivers,  its  wealth  of  precious  stones 
and  metals,  its  spices  and  silks,  and  in  particular  its  marvels 
and  wonders.  Of  its  religion  we  hear  but  little,  and  as  to  its 
literature  we  have  only  a  few  vague  statements  of  Arrian.1 
Aelian*  and  Dio  Chrysostomus. *  When  the  last  mentioned 
author  tells  us  that  the  ancient  Hindus  sang  in  their  o\vn 
language  the  poems  of  Homer,  it  shows  that  he  had  no  idea  of 
the  fact  that  the  great  Sanskrit  epics,  to  which  the  passage 
undoubtedly  alludes,  were  independent  poems.  To  him  they 
appeared  to  be  nothing  more  than  versions  of  Homer. 
Aelian  makes  a  similar  statement,  but  cautiously  adds  ii  TL 
Xpri  iruTTf.vf.iv  rots  {nrip  TOVTOJV  ItTTopowTiv.  P 1 1 i  1  ost rat u s  represents 
the  Hindu  sage  larchas  as  well  acquainted  with  the  Homeric 
poems,  but  nowhere  does  his  hero  Apollonius  of  Tyana  show 
t he  slightest  knowledge  of  Sanskrit  literature.1 

Xor  do  the  classic  authors  give  us  anv  more  information 
about  the  literature  of  Persia,  though  the  Iranian  religion 

1  Indira,  rh.  i<>.         -  Var.  Hist.  xii.  48. 

:i  De  Honicro,  Oratio  liii.,  <?<!.  Dimlorf,  Lips.  1857,  vol.  ii.  p.  i<>5. 

1  Apollonii  Vita,  iii.  IQ  i-t  passim. 


received  some  attention.  Aristotle  and  Theopompus  were 
more  or  less  familiar  with  Zoroastrian  tenets,1  and  allusions 
to  the  prophet  of  ancient  Iran  are  not  infrequent  in  classic 
writers.  But  their  information  concerning  him  is  very  scanty 
and  inaccurate.  To  them  Zoroaster  is  simply  the  great 
Magian,  more  renowned  for  his  magic  art  than  for  his  relig- 
ious system.  Of  the  national  Iranian  legends,  glimpses  of 
which  we  catch  in  the  A  vesta  (esp.  Yt.  19),  and  which  must 
have  existed  long  before  the  Sassanian  period  and  the  time 
of  Firdausl,  the  Greek  and  Roman  authors  have  recorded 
nothing. 

But  Europe  was  not  limited  to  the  classic  and  patristic 
writers  for  information  about  the  Orient.  The  points  of  con- 
tact between  the  Eastern  and  Western  world  were  numerous 
even  before  the  Portuguese  showed  the  way  to  India.  Alex- 
andria was  the  seat  of  a  lively  commerce  between  the  Roman 
Empire  and  India  during  the  first  six  centuries  of  the  .Chris- 
tian era;  the  Byzantine  Empire  was  always  in  close  relations, 
hostile  or  friendly,  with  Persia;  the  Arabs  had  settled  in  Spain, 
Southern  Italy  and  Sicily;  and  the  Mongols  ruled  for  almost 
two  centuries  in  Russia.  All  these  wrere  factors  in  the  trans- 
mission of  Oriental  influence.2  And,  as  far  as  Germany  is 
concerned,  we  must  remember  that  in  the  tenth  century,  owing 
to  the  marriage  of  the  emperor  Otto  II  to  the  Greek  princess 
Theophano,  the  relations  between  the  German  and  Byzantine 
Empires  were  especially  close.  Furthermore  the  Hohenstaufen 
emperor,  Frederick  II,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  a  friend 
and  patron  of  the  Saracens  in  Italy  and  Sicily,  who  in  turn 
supported  him  loyally  in  his  struggle  against  the  papacy. 
Above  all,  the  crusades,  which  brought  the  civilization  of 
the  West  face  to  face  with  that  of  the  East,  were  a  powerful 
factor  in  bringing  Oriental  influence  into  Europe.  The  effect 
they  had  on  the  European  mind  is  shown  by  the  great  number 
of  French  and  German  poems  which  lay  their  scene  of  action 
in  Eastern  lands,  or,  as  will  be  shown  presently,  introduce 
persons  and  things  from  India  and  Persia.3 

1  See  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  p.  8.    2  See  Benfey,  Pantschatantra,  Vorrede,  p.  xxiv  and  note. 

3  See  Gaston  Paris,  La  Litterature  Kran9aise  au  Aloyen  Age,  Paris,  1888,  p.  49  seq.  A 
striking  illustration  of  oral  transmission  is  the  origin  of  the  tradition  about  Prester  John, 
for  which  see  Cathay  and  the  Way  thither,  ed.  Henry  Yule,  Lond.  1866,  Hakluyt  Soc.  No. 
36,  37.  vol.  i.  p.  174  and  n.  i. 


Of  course  it  is  as  a  rule  impossible  to  tell  precisely  how  and 
when  the  Oriental  influence  came  into  Europe,  but  that  it  did 
come  is  absolutely  certain.  The  transformation  of  the  Bud- 
dha-legend into  the  Christian  legend  of  Barlaam  and  Josaphat, 
the  migration  of  fables  and  stories,  and  the  introduction  of 
the  game  of  chess  furnish  the  clearest  proofs  of  this. 

But  direct  information  about  the  East  was  also  available. 
A  number  of  merchants  and  missionaries  penetrated  even  as 
far  as  China,  and  have  left  accounts  of  their  travels.  Such 
an  account  of  India  and  Ceylon  was  given  as  early  as  the 
sixth  century  by  Cosmas,  surnamed  Indicopleustes.  The 
names  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela  (about  1160  A.D.)  and  of  Marco 
Polo  (1271-1295)  are  familiar  to  every  student  of  historical 
geography.  The  Mongol  rulers  during  the  period  of  their 
dominion  over  China  were  in  active  communication  with  the 
popes'and  allowed  Western  missionaries  free  access  to  their 
realm.  A  number  of  these  missionaries  also  came  to  India  or 
Persia,  for  instance  Giovanni  de  Montecorvino  (1289-1293),' 
Odorico  da  Pordenone  (1316-1318), a  Friar  Jordanus  (1321- 
1323,  and  1330)"  and  Giovanni  de  Marignolli  (1347)."  In  the 
fifteenth  century  Henrv  III  of  Castile  sent  Ruy  Gonzales  de 
Clavijo  as  ambassador  to  Timur,  and  towards  the  end  of  that 
century  several  Venetian  Ambassadors,  Caterino  Zeno  (1472). 
Josaphat  Barbaro  (1473)  an('  Ambrosio  Contarini  (1473). 
were  at  the  Persian  Court  in  order  to  bring  about  united  action 
on  the  part  of  Venice  and  Persia  against  the  Turks.5  These 
embassies  attracted  considerable  attention  in  Europe,  as  is 
shown  bv  numerous  pamphlets  concerning  them,  published  in 
several  European  countries.'1  In  this  same  century  Nicolo  de 
Conti  travelled  in  India  and  the  account  of  his  wanderings  has 
been  recorded  bv  Pocfjno.' 


1  Vulc,  op.  cit.  vol.  i.  pp.  165-1(17  and  p.  197  seq.     ^  Ib.  pp.  i-itii  ;  Latin  text  in  appendix 
i  of  vol.  ii. 


3  MiraMlia  Descripta,  ed.  lie 

4  Vulc,  Cathay,  vol.  ii.  pp.  ;i 
''  For  their  accounts  see  the  p 

and  49. 


ry  Yule,  London,  186;.     Ilakluyt  Society,  No.  ;t. 

-381. 

blications  of  the  Ilakluyt  Society,  1859  and  187;,.     N'ns.  2- 

s  in  Islamitischcr  ,/cit,  in  (Irdr.  iran.  Phil.  II.  p.  578  and 
1.   Asiat.   ct  Afnc.  par  11.  Ternaux-Compans,  Paris.  1841, 


15  See  Paul  Horn,  Gesch.  Ira 
note  4  ;  also  p.  579.  Sec  also  Hi 
under  the  years  1508,  1512,  1514, 

~  ICnglish  tr.  in   K.   11.   Major,  India   in   the    Fifteenth   Century,  London,  iS-,;.     llakluvt 
Society,  No.  22. 


As  we  see,  most  of  these  travellers  are  Italians.  We  know 
of  but  one  German,  before  the  year  1500,  who  went  further 
than  the  Holy  Land,  and  that  is  Johann  Schildberger  of 
Munich,  whose  book  of  travel  was  printed  in  1473.  Taken 
prisoner  while  fighting  in  Turkish  service  against  Timur  at 
Angora,  he  remained  in  the  East  from  1395  to  1417,  and  got 
as  far  as  Persia.  His  description  of  that  country  is  very 
meagre;  India,  as  he  expressly  states,1  he  never  visited,  his 
statements  about  that  land  being  mostly  plagiarized  from 
Mandeville.3 

These  accounts,  however,  while  they  give  valuable  informa- 
tion concerning  the  physical  geography,  the  wealth,  size,  and 
wonderful  things  of  the  countries  they  describe,  have  little  or 
nothing  to  say  about  the  languages  or  literatures.  All  that 
Conti  for  instance  has  to  say  on  this  important  subject  is  con- 
tained in  a  single  sentence:  "  Loquendi  idiomata  sunt  apud 
Indos  plurima,  atque  inter  se  varia. "! 

In  these  accounts  it  was  not  so  much  truthfulness  that 
appealed  to  the  public,  as  strangeness  and  fancifulness.  Thus 
Marco  Polo's  narrative,  marvelous  as  it  was,  never  became 
as  popular  as  the  spurious  memoirs  of  Mandeville,  who  in 
serving  up  his  monstrosities  ransacked  almost  every  author, 
classic  or  mediaeval,  on  whom  he  could  lay  his  hands.4  In 
fact  a  class  of  books  arose  which  bore  the  significant  name  of 
Mirabilia  Mundi  and  purported  to  treat  of  the  whole  world, 
and  especially  of  India.  Such  are,  for  instance,  Les  Merveilles 
de  VInde  by  Jean  Vauquelin,  Fenix  de  las  maravillas  del  mondo 
by  Raymundus  Lullius,  and  similar  works  by  Nicolaus  Donis, 
Arnaldus  de  Badeto  and  others.5  But  the  great  store-house  of 
Oriental  marvels  on  which  the  mediaeval  poets  drew  for 
material  was  the  Alexander-romance  of  pseudo-Callisthenes, 
of  which  there  were  a  number  of  Latin  versions,  the  most 
important  being  the  epitome  made  by  Julius  Valerius  and  the 
Historia  de  Preliis  written  by  the  archpresbyter  Leo  in  the 

1  Hans  Schiltbergers  Reisebuch  ed.  Val.  Langmantel  (BLVS.  vol.  172)  Tubingen,  1885, 
p.  79  :  "  In  tier  grossen  India  pin  ich  nicht  gcwesen  .  .  .  ."  2Ibid.  p.  164. 

3  Friedr.  Kunstmann,  Die  Kenntnis  Indians  im  15""  Jahrhunderte,  Miinchen,  1863,  p.  59  ; 
Major,  op.  cit.  p.  31. 

4  See  Albert  Bovenschen,  Quellen  flir  die  Reisebeschreibung  des  Job.  v.  Mandeville, 
Berl.  1888. 

5  See  GrSsse,  J.  G.  Th..  Lehrbuch  einer  allgem.  Literargesch.,  9  vols.,  Dresd.  u.  Leipz. 

1837-50,  Vol.  II.  pt.   2,  pp.   783-785. 


tenth  century.  The  character  of  the  Oriental  lore  offered  in 
these  writings  is  best  shown  by  a  cursory  examination  of  the 
work  last  mentioned.1  There  we  are  introduced  to  a  bewil- 
dering array  of  mirabilia,  snakes,  hippopotami,  scorpions, 
giant-lobsters,  forest-men,  bats,  elephants,  bearded  women, 
dog-headed  people,  griffins,  white  women  with  long  hair  and 
canine  teeth,  fire-spouting  birds,  trees  that  grow  and  vanish 
in  the  course  of  a  single  day,  mountains  of  adamant,  and 
finally  sacred  sun-trees  and  moon-trees  that  possess  the  gift  of 
prophecy.  But  beyond  some  vague  reference  to  asceticism 
not  a  trace  of  knowledge  of  Brahmanic  life  can  be  found. 
While  the  Brahman  King  Didimus  is  well  versed  in  Roman 
and  Greek  mythology,  he  never  mentions  the  name  of  any  of 
his  own  gods.  Of  real  information  concerning  India  there  is 
almost  nothing. 

From  what  we  have  seen  thus  far  we  shall  not  expect  in 
medieval  literature  conscious  imitation  or  reproduction  of 
works  from  Persian  or  Sanskrit  literature.  Whatever  influ- 
ence these  literatures  exerted  in  Europe  was  indirect.  If  a 
subject  was  transmitted  from  East  to  West  it  was  as  a  rule 
stripped  of  its  Oriental  names  and  characteristics,  and  even  its 
Oriental  origin  was  often  forgotten.  This  is  the  case  with  the 
greater  part  of  the  fables  and  stories  that  can  be  traced  to 
Eastern  sources  and  have  found  their  wav  into  such  works  as 
the  Gcsta  Romanorum,  or  the  writings  of  Boccaccio,  Straparola 
and  Lafohtaine.  Sometimes,  however,  the  history  of  the 
origin  is  still  remembered,  as  for  instance  in  the  famous 
Buch  (far  licispiflt\  where  the  preface  begins  thus:  "  Es  ist  von 
den  alien  wvsen  der  geschlacht  der  welt  dis  buoch  des  ersten 
jn  yndischer  sprauch  gedicht  und  darnach  in  die  buochstabcn 
der  Persen  verwandelt " 

Poems  whose  subjects  are  of  Eastern  origin  are  not  fre- 
quent in  the  German  literature  of  the  middle  ages.  The 
most  striking  example  of  such  a  poem  is  the  "  Barlaam  und 
Josaphat  "  of  Rudolph  von  Ems  (about  1225),  the  storv  of 
which,  as  has  been  conclusively  proved,  is  nothing  more  or 

1  Latin  text  publ.  by  Oswald  Xinp;erlc  ns  an  appendix  to  Die  (Jucllcn  zum  Alexander 
des  Rudolf  v.  Ems  in  Weinhold  Germ.  Ahha.mil.  Krcslau.  1885.  pt.  iv. 

2  Das  Much  der  Heispiele   der   alien    Weisen,  ed.    Wilh.   l.udw.   Holland,  Stuttg.    i8t>o, 
HLVS.  vol.  56. 


6 

less  than  the  legend  of  Buddha  in  Christian  garb.1  The  well 
known  "Herzmaere"  of  the  same  author  has  likewise  been 
shown  to  be  of  Indie  origin.5  Then  there  is  a  poem  of  the 
fourteeth  or  fifteenth  century  on  the  same  subject  as  Riickert's 
parable  of  the  man  in  the  well,  which  undoubtedly  goes  back 
to  Buddhistic  sources.1  Besides  these  we  mention  "  Vrou- 
wenzuht "  (also  called  "von  dem  Zornbraten")  by  a  poet 
Sibote  of  the  thirteenth  century,4  and  Hans  von  Biihel's 
"  Diocletianus  Leben  "  (about  1412),  the  well  known  story 
of  the  seven  wise  masters.6 

The  great  interest  which  the  East  aroused  in  Europe,  espe- 
cially after  the  period  of  the  first  crusades,  is  shown  by  the 
great  number  of  poems  which  have  their  scene  of  action  in 
Oriental  lands,  especially  in  India  or  Persia,  or  which  intro- 
duce persons  and  things  from  those  countries.  To  indulge 
this  fondness  for  Oriental  scenery  poets  do  not  hesitate  to 
violate  historical  truth.  Thus  Charlemagne  and  his  paladins 
are  sent  to  the  Holy  Land  in  the  "  Pelerinage  de  Charles- 
magne  "8  and  in  the  poem  called  the  "  Karl  Meinet, "  a  German 
compilation  of  various  legends  about  the  Prankish  hero.7 
Purely  Germanic  legends  like  those  of  Ortnit-Wolfdietrich 
and  King  Rother  were  orientalized  in  much  the  same  manner.8 
As  might  be  expected,  it  is  in  the  court-epic  and  minstrel- 
poetry  (Spielmannsdichtung)  where  this  Oriental  tendency  mani- 
fests itself  most  markedly.  A  typical  poem  of  this  kind  is 
"  Herzog  Ernst."  The  hero,  a  purely  German  character,  is 
made  to  go  through  a  series  of  marvelous  adventures  in  the 

1  Piper,  H.  E.  iii.  pp.  562-632.     Joseph  Langen,  Johannes  von  Damaskus,  Gotha  1879, 
pp.  230-255,  esp.  p.  252,  n.  i. 
*  Piper,  H.  E.  iii.  pp.  216-219. 

3  Vetter,  Lehrhafte  Litteratur  des  14.  u.  15.  Jahrhunderts  (KDNL.  vol.  12),  I.  pp.  496- 
499.     For  a  bibliography  of  this  poem  see  C.  Beyer,  Nachgelassene  Ged.  Kriedr.  Riickert's, 
Wien,  1877,  pp.  311-320.     For  a  translation  of  the  version  in  the  MahJbhSrata  see  Boxber- 
ger,  Ruckert  Studien,  p.  94  seq.     A  translation  of  a  Buddhist  sutta  on   the  same  subject  is 
given  in  Edm.   Hardy,  Indische  Religionsgeschichte,  Leipz.  1898,  pp.  72,  73.     Cf.  also  E. 
Kuhn,  in  Bohtlingks  Festgruss,  Stuttg.  1888,  pp.  74,  75. 

4  Piper,  H.  E.  iii.  pp.  531,  532.      See  also  Hagen,  Gesamtntabenteuer,  i.  LXXXV  and 
n.  2. 

6  Edited  by  Keller,  Quedl.  1841.      See  art.  by  Goedeke  in  Orient  und  Occident,  iii.  2. 
pp.  385  seq. 

•Sec  edition  by  Koschwitz,  in  Altfranz.  Bibl.,  vol.  ii,  p.  7  seq., and  consult  Gaston  Paris, 
La  Poesie  du  Moyen  Age,  Paris,  1887.  p.  119  seq. 

7  See  ed.  Adelb.  von  Keller,  Stuttg.  1858  (BLVS.  vol.  45),  pp.  507  seq.     Cf.  also  Uhland's 
Kiinig  Karls  Meerfart. 

8Jiriczek,  Die  deutsche  Heldensage,  Leipz.  1897,  pp.  144,  153. 


East  some  of  which  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  those  of 
Sindbad.1  The  later  strophic  version  (i4th  century)  and  the 
prose-version  of  the  Volksbuch  (probably  i5th  centurv)  localize 
some  of  these  adventures  definitely  in  the  ferren  India*  Pro- 
bably under  the  influence  of  this  story  the  author  of  the 
incompleted  "  Reinfrit  von  Braunschweig"  (about  1300)  was 
induced  to  send  his  hero  into  Persia,  to  meet  with  some- 
what similar  experiences.3  Heinrich  von  Xeustadt  likewise 
lays  the  scene  of  Apollonius"  adventures  in  the  golden  valley 
Crysia  bordering  on  India."  In  the  continuation  of  the  Par- 
zifal-story  entitled  "  Der  Jungere  Titurel,"  which  was  written 
by  Albrecht  von  Scharffenberg  (about  1280),  the  Holy  Grail  is 
to  be  removed  from  a  sinful  world  and  to  be  carried  to  the 
East  to  be  given  to  Feirefiz,  half  brother  to  Parzifal.0  The 
meeting  of  Feirefiz  with  the  knights  furnishes  the  poet  an 
opportunity  of  bringing  in  a  learned  disquisition  on  Prester 
John  and  his  dri  India  die  wltcn,  and  finally  this  mythical 
monarch  offers  his  crown  to  Parxifal,  who  henceforth  is 
called  Priester  Johanni.  In  the  poem  of  ''  Lohengrin",  of  un- 
known authorship,  the  knight  when  about  to  depart  declares 
he  has  come  from  India  where  there  is  a  house  fairer  than  that 
at  Montsalvatsch." 

Princes  and  princesses  from  India  or  Persia  abound  in  the 
poems  of  the  court-writers  and  minstrels.  Thus  in  "Solomon 
und  Morolf  "  Saline  is  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  find i an ;~  in 
Wolfram's  '' Willehalm  "  King  Alofel  of  Persia  and  King 
Gorhant  from  the  Gctnjcs  figure  in  the  battle  of  Alischan/.'  In 
Konrad  von  Wiir/biirg's  "  Trojanischer  Krieg"  the  kings  Pan- 
ii lias  of  Persia  and  Achalmus  of  India  are  on  the  Trojan  side.9 
In  the  same  poet's  "  Partenopier  "  the  Sultan  of  Persia  is  the 
hero's  chief  rival."1  In  "Der  Jungere  Titurel  "  Gatschiloe.  a 
princess  from  India,  becomes  bearer  of  the  Grail;  similarlv  in 

1  On  this  see  Karl  Hartsrli,  IIer/o<;  Krnst,  Wieii,  iS'^,  Kinl.  p.  cliii. 
'-'  Hartsch,  op.  cit.  p.  204  sec).  an<l  p.  271)  set). 
3  Sec  e<l.  Hiirtsi-h,  Tub    1871  (HLVS.  vol.  i»S>,  11.  i6749  sc<|. 
<  1'iper,  II.  K.  iii.  p.  ;?o. 
•''  Piper.  II.  K.  ii.  p.  5  ;r>  sec). 

"See  ed.  by  Heinr.  Riickcrt,  Oueillinb.  u.  I.eip/.  1858,  1.  7141  seq.  |).  180. 
7  Piper,  SpielniannsilichtuilK,  I.  p.  .-13.     See  also  e<l.  by  Ha^en  u.    Biisrhinf;   in   (ieil.  tl. 
Mittel.,  Herl.  i8c8.  i.  1.  o. 

h  1'iper.  Wolfr.  v.  Kschenbarh  (KD.M..  vol.  51,  I.  p.  214. 

'••See  eel.  v.  Keller,  Stutt-;.  "858  (HLVS.  vol.  44),  11.  24840,  24039,  pp.  JQ'\  .-98. 
10  Piper,  II.  K.  iii.  pp.  21)1).  ;oo. 


8 

a  poem  by  Der  Pleiaere,  Flordibel,  who  comes  to  the  Knights  of 
the  Round  Table  to  learn  courtly  manners,  reveals  herself  as  a 
princess  from  India.1  According  to  a  poem  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  father  of  St.  Christopher  is  king  of  Arabia  and 
Persia.*  Even  the  folk-epic  "  Kudrun  "  knows  of  Hilde  of 
India,  Hagen's  wife.* 

Again,  wonderful  things  from  India  are  abundant  in  this 
class  of  poetry.  The  magic  lance  which  Wigalois  receives, 
when  he  is  about  to  do  battle  with  a  fire-spitting  dragon,  is 
from  that  land.4  So  also  is  the  magic  ring  given  to  Reinfrit 
when  he  sets  out  on  his  crusade.8  Wigamur's  bride  Dulceflur 
wears  woven  gold  from  the  castle  Gramrimort  in  India,"  and 
in  the  "  Nibelungen  "  Hagen  and  Dancwart,  when  going  to 
the  Isenstein,  wear  precious  stones  from  that  land.7 

To  some  poets  India  and  Persia  are  a  sort  of  Ultima  Thule 
to  denote  the  furthest  limits  of  the  earth,  as  for  instance,  when 
in  the  "  Rolandslied  "  Ganelun  complains  that  for  the  ambi- 
tion of  Roland  even  Persia  is  not  too  far,8  or,  when  in  the 
"  Willehalm  "  King  Tybalt,  whose  daughter  has  been  carried 
off,  lets  his  complaint  ring  out  as  far  as  India.9 

Examples  might  be  multiplied.  But  they  wrould  all  prove 
the  same  thing.  India  and  Persia  were  magic  names  to  con- 
jure with  ;  their  languages  and  literatures  were  a  book  with 
seven  seals  to  mediaeval  Europe. 

1  Piper,  H.  E.  ii.  p.  325. 

2  Piper,  Die  geistliche  Dichtung  des  Mittelalters  (KDNL.  vol.  3),  ii.  pp.  71,  72. 

3  See  ed.  Bartsch  (KDNL.  vol.  6),  pp.  26,  27. 

4  Piper,  H.  E.  ii.  p.  222. 

6  See  ed.  Bartsch,  1.  15067,  p.  440. 

*  See  ed.  by  Hagen  in  Ged.  d.  Mittel.  i.  p.  46, 1.  4462  seq. 

'  Das  Nibelungenlied,  ed.  Friedr.  Zarncke,  Leipz.  1894,  p.  62,  v.  3. 

*  Piper,  Spielm.,  p.  30. 

*  Piper,  Wolfr.  v.  Eschenbach,  i.  p.  208,  cf.  Dante's  Paradiso,  cant.  29, 11.  100-102. 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM   THE    PORTUGUESE    DISCOVERIES    TO    THE 
TIME    OF   SIR    WILLIAM    JONES. 

TRAVELS  TO  INDIA  AND  PERSIA — OLEARIUS  AND  HIS  WORK — 
PROGRESS  OF  PERSIAN  STUDIES — ROGER — INDIA'S  LAN- 
GUAGE AND  LITERATURE  REMAIN  UNKNOWN — ORIENTAL 
INFLUENCE  IN  GERMAN  LITERATURE. 

Little  can  be  said  of  Oriental  influence  on  German  poetrv 
during  the  next  three  centuries  after  the  Great  Age  of  Dis- 
covery, and  in  an  investigation  like  the  one  in  hand,  which 
confines  itself  to  poetry  only,  this  chapter  might  perhaps  be 
omitted.  Nevertheless  a  brief  consideration  of  this  influence 
on  German  literature  in  general  during  this  period  forms  an 
appropriate  transition  to  the  time  when  the  Oriental  move- 
ment in  Germany  really  began. 

After  the  Portuguese  had  sailed  around  Africa,  direct  and 
uninterrupted  communication  with  the  far  East  was  established. 
Portuguese,  Dutch,  French  and  English  merchants  appeared 
successively  on  the  scene  to  get  their  share  of  the  rich  India 
commerce.  German  merchants  also  made  a  transitorv  effort. 
The  firm  of  the  Welsers  in  Augsburg  sent  two  representatives 
who  accompanied  the  expedition  of  Francisco  d'  Almeida  in 
1505  and  that  of  Tristao  da  Cunha  in  the  following  year. 
Hut  conditions  were  not  favorable  and  the  attempt  was  not 
renewed. ' 

Travels  to  India  and  Persia  now  multiplied  rapidly,  and 
accounts  of  such  travels  became  verv  common  ;  so  common,  in 
fact,  that  already  in  the  sixteenth  century  collections  of  them 
were  made,  the  best  known  being  the  .\~i>n/.<  Or/>i.\  of  Grynaeus. 
and  the  works  of  Ramusio  and  Ilakluvt.  Among  the  more 
famous  travellers  of  tht  sixteenth  centurv  we  mav  mention 
Barthema,  Federici,  Barbosa.  Fitch  and  van  Linschoten  for 
India,  and  the  brothers  Shirlev  for  Persia,  "in  the  seventeenth 

1  See  Kunstinann,  Die  Kahrt  <ler  ersten  Deutsrhcn  nach  dem  portiiniesisdien  Inilk-n  in 
Hist.  pol.  Ulattcr  f.  d.  Katli.  Deutsdil..  Miindicn.  iSM,  vol.  48,  pp.  --77- ?°"- 


10 

century  we  may  cite  the  names  of  della  Valle,  Baldaeus, 
Tavernier,  Bernier  and  the  German  Mandelslo  for  India,  while 
those  of  Olearius  and  Chardin  are  most  famous  in  connection 
with  Persia.  And  that  books  of  travel  were  much  read  in 
Germany  is  attested  by  the  number  of  editions  and  translations 
which  appeared  there.  Thus  among  the  earliest  books  printed 
there  we  have  a  translation  of  Marco  Polo  (Nuremberg),  1477,' 
reprinted  repeatedly,  e.  g.  at  Augsburg,  1481,  in  the  Novus 
Orbis,  1534  (Latin  version),  at  Basle,  1534  (German  translation 
of  the  preceding),  while  Mandeville's  memoirs  were  so  popular 
as  to  become  finally  a  Volksbuch* 

The  account  of  Olearius  is  of  special  interest  to  us.  It 
gives  an  excellent  description  of  Persia,  and  above  all  it  gives 
us  valuable  information  on  the  literature  and  language. 
Olearius  is  struck  by  the  similarity  of  many  Persian  words  to 
corresponding  words  in  German  and  Latin,  and  hints  at  the 
kinship  of  these  idioms,  though,  looking  only  at  the  vocabu- 
lary and  not  at  the  structure,  he  supposes  Persian  to  be  related 
to  Arabic.3  He  tells  us  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  poetry 
was  held  by  the  Persians,  and  notices  that  rhyme  is  an  indis- 
pensable requisite  of  their  poetic  art.  He  also  mentions  some 
of  their  leading  poets,  among  them  Sa'di,  Hafid,  Firdausi  and 
Nidami.4 

But  what  interests  us  most  is  the  translation  which  he  made 
of  the  Gulistdn,  published  in  1654,  under  the  title  of  Persianischer 
Rosenthal.  True,  it  was  not  the  first  in  point  of  time.  As 
early  as  1634  du  Ryer  had  published  at  Paris  an  incomplete 
French  version,  and  shortly  afterwards  this  version  was  trans- 
lated into  German  by  Johann  Friedrich  Ochsenbach  of  Tubin- 
gen, but  apparently  without  attracting  much  notice.6  In  1644, 
Levin  Warner  of  Leyden  had  given  the  Persian  text  and  Latin 
version  of  a  number  of  Sa'dl's  maxims,6  while  Gentius  had 

1  For  title  see  Panzer,  Annalen  d.  a'lteren  cleutsch.  Litt.,  NUrnb.  1788. 

2  See  Grasse,  op.  cit.  ii.  2.  pp.  773,  774. 

8  Des  Welt-beriihmten  Adaini  Olearii  colligirte  und  viel  vermehrte  Reise-Beschreibun- 
gen  etc.,  Hamb.  1696,  chap.  xxv. 

4  Ibid.  chap,  xxviii.  p.  327  seq. 

6  Olearius,  op.  cit.,  Preface  to  the  Rosenthal.  Full  title  of  Ochsenbach's  book  in  Buch 
der  Beispiele,  ed.  Holland,  p.  258,  n.  i. 

'  Proverbiorum  et  Sententiarum  Persicarum  Centuria,  Leyden,  1644.  In  the  preface  the 
author  says  that  he  undertakes  his  work,  "  cum  e  genuinis  Persarum  scriptis  nihil  hactenus 
in  Latinam  linguam  sit  translatum." 


11 

published  the  whole  text  with  a  Latin  translation  at  Amster- 
dam in  1651.  But  it  was  the  version  of  Olearius  that  really 
introduced  the  Gulistciii  to  Europe. 

The  edition  of  Olearius,  from  which  we  have  cited,  contains 
also  a  translation  of  the  Bustan,  called  Dcr  Persianische  Baum- 
garfen,  made,  however,  not  directly  from  the  Persian,  but  from 
a  Dutch  version.  Besides  this,  the  edition  contains  also  the 
narratives  of  two  other  travellers,  Jiirgen  Andersen  and  Yol- 
quard  Iversen,  as  well  as  an  account  of  Persia  by  the  French 
missionary  Sanson.  Iversen,  in  speaking  of  the  Parsi  relig- 
ion, gives  an  essentially  correct  account  of  the  Zoroastrian 
hierarchy,  of  the  supreme  god  and  his  seven  servants,,  each 
presiding  over  some  special  element,  evidently  an  allusion  to 
Aluira  Ma/da  and  his  six  Amesha  Spentas,  with  the  possible 
addition  of  Sraosha. '  Sanson  states  that  the  Gavrcs  have  kept 
up  the  old  Persian  language  and  that  it  is  entirely  different 
from  modern  Persian,2  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  existence 
of  the  Avestan  language.  The  eighteenth  centurv  saw  the 
discovery  of  the  Arcsta  bv  Anquetil  du  Perron,  and  its  close 
found  men  like  Jones,  Revi/ky,  de  Sacv  and  Hammer  busily 
engaged  in  spreading  a  knowledge  of  Persian  literature  in 
Europe. 

India,  as  far  as  its  literature  was  concerned,  did  not  fare  so 
well.  The  struggles  of  European  nations  for  the  mastery  of 
that  rich  empire  did  little  towards  promoting  a  knowledge  of 
its  religion  or  its  language.  Nor  were  the  efforts  of  mission- 
aries verv  successful.  Most  of  their  attention  was  devoted  to 
the  Dravidian  idioms  of  Southern  India,  not  to  Sanskrit.  We 
have  the  authoritv  of  Fricdrich  Schlegel  for  the  statement  that 
before  his  time  there  were  but  two  (iermans  who  were  known 
to  have  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  sacred  language1,  the  mis- 
sionarv  Hcinrich  Roth  and  the  Jesuit  llanxleben.8  Even  their 
work  was  not  published  and  was  superseded  bv  that  ol  Jones. 
Colebrooke  and  others.  Most  valuable  information  on  Hindu 
religion  was  given  bv  the  Hutch  preacher  Abraham  Roger  in 
his  well  known  book  /)<•  Opcn-Dcurc  /<>/  //<•/  /  V/Av;-;r;/  Il<-\\icn- 

1  Iversen  in  op  tit.  chap.  xi.  p.   i;;sc(|.      ('I'.  Jackson,  Die  nanische   Religion  inGnlt. 
Iran.  1'h.  iii.  pp.  i.;j,  (154,  6(6. 
-  Sanson  in  op.  cit   pp.  48,  49. 
3  Kr.  Schickel,  Weisheit  der  Indier,  Ileidell).  1808,  Vorreilc.  p.  xi. 


12 

dom,  published  at  Leyden  in  1651,  two  years  after  the  author's 
death.  This  book  also  gave  to  the  West  the  first  specimen 
of  Sanskrit  literature  in  the  shape  of  a  Dutch  version  of  two 
hundred  maxims  of  Bhartrhari,  not  a  direct  translation  from 
the  Sanskrit,  but  based  on  oral  communication  imparted  by  a 
learned  Brahman  Padmanaba. '  As  a  rule  the  rendering  is  very 
faithful,  sometimes  even  literal.  The  maxims  were  translated 
into  German  by  C.  Arnold  and  were  published  at  Nuremberg 
in  1663. 

This,  however,  ended  the  progress  of  Sanskrit  literature  in 
Europe  for  the  time  being.  Information  came  in  very  slowly. 
The  Lettres  jfcdifiantes  of  the  Jesuits,  and  the  accounts  of  travel- 
lers like  Sonnerat  began  to  shed  additional  light  on  the  relig- 
ious customs  of  India,  but  its  sacred  language  remained  a 
secret.  In  1785,  Herder  wrote  that  what  Europe  knew  of 
Hindu  literature  was  only  late  legends,  that  the  Sanskrit 
language  as  well  as  the  genuine  Veda  would  probably  for  a 
long  time  remain  unknown.2  Sir  William  Jones,  however,  had 
founded  the  Asiatic  Society  a  year  before  and  the  first  step 
towards  the  discovery  of  Sanskrit  had  really  thus  been  taken. 

But  let  us  consider  what  bearing  all  this  had  on  German 
poetry.  In  this  field  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
were  desperately  dreary.  In  the  former  century  the  leading 
thinkers  of  Germany  were  absorbed  in  theological  controversy, 
while  in  the  next  the  Thirty  Years'  War  completely  crushed 
the  spirit  of  the  nation.  There  is  little  poetry  in  this  period 
that  calls  for  even  passing  notice  in  this  investigation.  Paul 
Fleming,  although  he  was  with  Olearius  in  Persia,  has  written 
nothing  that  would  interest  us  here.  Andreas  Gryphius 
took  the  subject  for  his  drama  "Catharina  von  Georgien " 
(1657)  from  Persian  history.  It  is  the  story  of  the  cruel 
execution  of  the  Georgian  queen  by  order  of  Shall  'Abbas  in 
1624. 8  Nor  is  Oriental  influence  in  the  eighteenth  century 
more  noticeable.  Occasionally  an  Oriental  touch  is  brought 
in.  Pfeffel  makes  his  "Bramine"  read  a  lesson  to  bigots; 
Matthias  Claudius  in  his  well-known  poem  makes  Herr  Urian 
pay  a  visit  to  the  Great  Mogul;  Burger,  in  his  salacious  story 

1  See  preface  to  op.  cit. 

2  Ideen  zur  Phil.  d.  Gesch.  der  Menschheit,  chap.  iv.  ed.  Suphan,  vol.  13,  p.  415. 

3  The  story  is  given  in  Chardin's  book,  though  this  was  not  the  source.     See  Andreas 
Gryphius  Trauerspiele,  ed.  Herm.  Palm,  BLVS.  vol.  162,  pp.  138,  139. 


13 

of  the  queen  of  Golkonde,  transports  the  lovers  to  India; 
Lessing,  in  "Minna  von  Barnhelm  "  (Act  i.  Sc.  12)  represents 
Werner  as  intending  to  take  service  with  Prince  Heraklius  of 
Persia,  and  he  chooses  an  Oriental  setting  for  his  "Nathan 
der  Weise. " 

In  the  prose  writings  of  this  period  Oriental  influence  is 
much  more  discernible.  In  the  literature  dealing  with  magic 
Zoroaster  always  played  a  prominent  part.  The  invention  of 
the  Cabala  was  commonly  ascribed  to  him.1  European  writers 
on  the  black  art,  as  for  instance  Bodinus,  whose  De  Magorum 
Dccmonomania  was  translated  by  Fischart  (Strassburg,  1591), 
repeat  about  Zoroaster  all  the  fables  found  in  classical  or 
patristic  writers.  So  the  Iranian  sage  figures  prominently 
also  in  the  Faust-legend.  He  is  the  prince  of  magicians 
whose  book  Faust  studies  so  diligently  that  he  is  called  a 
second  Zoroastris.1  This  book  passes  into  the  hands  of 
Faust's  pupil  Christoph  Wagner,  who  uses  it  as  diligently  as 
his  master.3 

In  all  this  folkbook-literature  India  is  a  mere  name.  Thus 
in  the  oldest  Faust-book  of  1587  the  sorcerer  makes  a  journey 
in*  the  air  through  England,  Spain,  France,  Sweden,  Poland, 
Denmark,  India,  Africa  and  Persia,  and  finally  comes  to 
Morenland. 4 

Of  all  the  prose-writings,  however,  the  novel,  which 
began  to  flourish  luxuriouslv  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
showed  the  most  marked  tendency  to  make  use  of  Eastern 
scenery  and  episodes,  and  incidentally  to  exhibit  the 
author's  erudition  on  everything  Oriental.  Thus  (irim- 
melshausen  transports  his  hero  SimpTicissimus  into  Asia 
through  the  device  of  Tartar  captivity.  Lohenstein.  in  his 
ultra-Teutonic  romance  of  Arminius,  manages  to  introduce  an 
Armenian  princess  and  a  prince  from  Pontus.  The  latter,  a^ 
we  learn  from  the  autobiography  with  which  he  favors  us  in 
the  fifth  book,  has  been  in  India.  He  took  with  him  a  Brah- 
man sage,  who  burned  himself  on  reaching  (Ireece.  Evi- 

1  See  Xoroasters  Telescop  odor  Seliliisscl  /ur  grossen  divinatorisrhen  Kabbala  tier 
Magier  in  Das  Kloster  eil.  J.  Scheible,  Suittjj.  184(1,  vol.  iii.  p.  414  scq.,  i-sp.  p.  4;^. 

-  Wiclmaiin's  Kaust  in  Das  Kloster,  vol.  ii.  p.  ^j(>  ;  Der  < 'liristlich  Meynemle.  ibid.  ii. 
p.  85. 

3  Christoph.  Wagners  l.cben,  ibid.  vol.  iii.  p.  78.        4  Ilml.  ii.  p.  i-*>4. 


14 

dently  Lohenstein  had  read  Arrian's  description  of  the  burn- 
ing of  Kalanos  (Arrian  vii.  2.  3).  The  Asiatische  Banise  of 
Heinrich  Anselm  von  Ziegler-Kliphausen,  perhaps  the  most 
popular  German  novel  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  based 
directly  on  the  accounts  of  travellers  to  Farther  India,  not  on 
Greek  or  Latin  writings.1  Other  authors  who  indulged  their 
predilection  for  Oriental  scenery  were  Buchholtz  in  his  Her- 
kttles  und  Valisca  (1659),  Happel  in  Der  Asiatische  Onogambo 
(Hamb.  1673),  Bohse  (Talander)  in  Die  durchlauchtigste  Alcestis 
aus  Persien  (Leipz.  1689)  and  others.3 

The  most  striking  instance  of  the  Oriental  tendency  is 
furnished  by  Grimmelshausen's  Joseph,  first  published  prob- 
ably in  1667. 3  Here  we  meet  the  famous  story  of  Yusuf  and 
Zali^ii  as  it  is  given  in  the  Quran  or  in  the  poems  of  Firdausi 
and  Jami.  The  well-knowTn  episode  of  the  ladies  cutting 
their  hands  instead  of  the  lemons  in  consequence  of  their 
confusion  at  the  sight  of  Joseph's  beauty  is  here  narrated  at 
length.4  In  the  preface  the  author  states  explicitly  that  he 
has  drawn,  not  only  from  the  Bible,  but  from  Hebrew, 
Arabic  and  Persian  waitings  as  well.6  That  he  should  have 
made  use  of  Arabic  material  is  credible  enough,  for  Dutch 
Orientalists  like  Golius  and  Erpenius  had  made  this  acces- 
sible.8 That  he  had  some  idea  of  Persian  poetry  is  shown  by 
his  allusions  to  the  fondness  of  Orientals  for  handsome  boys.7 
On  the  other  hand,  what  he  says  of  Zoroaster  in  the  Musai 
can  all  be  found  in  Latin  and  Greek  writers.8  Here  we  get 
the  biography  of  Joseph's  chief  servant  in  the  form  of  an 
appendix  to  the  novel,  and  the  author  displays  all  the  learn- 
ing which  fortunately  his  good  taste  had  excluded  from  the 
story  itself.  Of  the  Iranian  tradition  concerning  Zoroas- 
ter's death  as  given  in  the  Pahlavi  writings  or  the  Shah 
Ndmah 9  Grimmelshausen  knew  absolutely  nothing;  nor  can 
we  find  the  slightest  evidence  to  substantiate  his  assertion 

1  Ed.  by  Felix  Bobertag,  KDNL.  vol.  37,  Einl.  p.  8. 

-  On  this  see  Felix  Bobertag,  Gesch.  des  Romans  und  der  ihm  venvanclten  Dichtungs- 
gattungen  in  Deutschland,  Bresl.  1876,  vol.  ii.  2.  pp.  no  seq.,  140,  160. 

~'  In  Der  abenteuerliche  Simplicissimus  ed.  Adalb.  Keller,  Stuttg.  1862  (BLVS.  vol.  66), 
vol.  iv.  pp.  707  seq. 

4  Op.  cit.  pp.  759,  760.        *  Ibid,  p.  710  ;  again  p.  841. 

9  The  Story  of  Joseph  from  the  Quran  was  published  in  Arabic  with  a  Latin  version  by 
Erpenius  asearly  as  1617.  See  Zenker,  Bibl.  Orient.,  Leipz.  1846,  vol.  i.  p.  169,  No.  1380. 

7  Keller,  op.  cit.  p.  742.        8  See  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  Appendix  V  (by  Gray). 

9  See  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  pp.  127-132. 


15 

that  for  the  work  in  question  lie  drew  from  Persian  or  Arabic 
sources. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Oriental  tale  was  extremely 
popular  in  France,  and  thence  it  spread  to  other  countries. 
The  translation  of  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights  by  Galland 
(Paris,  1704-1712)  and  of  the  Persian  Tales  by  Petis  de  La 
Croix  called  into  being  a  host  of  similar  French  productions, 
which  in  turn  found  their  way  into  German  literature.  The 
most  fruitful  writer  in  this  genre  was  Simon  Gueulette,  the 
author  of  Soirees  Bretonnes  (1712)  and  Mille  et  un  quart  if  licit  res 
(1715).  The  latter  contains  the  story  of  a  prince  who  is 
punished  for  his  presumption  by  having  two  snakes  grow 
from  his  shoulders.  To  appease  them  thev  are  fed  on  fresh 
human  brain.1  Of  course,  we  recognize  at  once  the  story  of 
the  tyrant  Zahhak  familiar  from  Firdausl.  The  material  for 
the  Soirees  was  drawn  largely  from  Armeno's  Percgrinaggio, 
which  purports  to  be  a  translation  from  the  Persian,  although 
no  original  is  known  to  scholars.3  From  these  Soirees  Vol- 
taire took  the  material  for  his  Zadig.3  In  most  cases,  how- 
ever, all  that  was  Oriental  about  such  stories  was  the  name 
and  the  costume.  So  popular  was  the  Oriental  costume  that 
Montesquieu  used  it  for  satiri/ing  the  Parisians  in  his  Lettrcs 
Pcrsancs  (1721).  Through  French  influence  the  Oriental 
story  came  to  Gennanv,  and  so  we  get  such  works  as  August 
Gottlob  Meissner's  tales  of  ^us/iirran,  jWassonJ,  Giaffar,  Saa'i 
and  others,4  or  Klinger's  Dcrn'isi/i.  Wieland  used  the  Eastern 
costume  in  his  Sc/iiic/i  Lo/o  (1778)  and  in  his  politico-didactic 
romance  of  the  wise  Danischmende.  Tin's  fondness  for  an 
Oriental  atmosphere  continues  even  into  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury and  may  be  seen  in  such  works  as  Tieck's  AbJiillah  and 
Ilauff's  Karau'anc.  lint  tin's  brings  us  to  the  time  when 
India  and  Persia  were  to  give  up  their  secrets,  and  when  the 
influence  of"  their  literature  begins  to  be  a  factor  in  the  litera- 
ture of  Kurope. 

1  Rud.  Kllrst,  Die  VorlSufer  der  Moderneii  N'orclle  im  achtzchntcn  .lahrhundert,  Halle 
a.  S.  18.17.  P-  5'- 

'•'  Some  of  the  stories  are  undoubtedly  Oriental  in  origin.  The  work  appeared  at  Venice. 
1557,  and  was  translated  int  >  German,  in  i=,S^,  bv  Johann  Wet/el  under  the  title  Die  Rcise 
derSohne  Giaffers.  Kd.  by  llerin.  Fischer  and  Joh.  Holtc  iHI.VS,  vol.  2081.  Tub.  iSj;. 


3  I'Tirst,  op.  cit.  p.  5.'.  The  name  is  deiived  from  the  Arabic  ,i.!(^-*5  "  speaker  of 
the  truth,"  as  pointed  out  by  1  lain  me  r  in  Red.  p.  32".  See  essay  l.'an.ne  et  riiennite  by 
Gaston  Paris  in  I.a  Pocste  du  Moyen  Age,  Paris,  1887.  p.  151.  4  l-'iirst.  o|i.  cit.  p.  i-,4. 


CHAPTER  III. 
HERDER. 

HERDER'S  INTEREST  IN  THE  ORIENT — FOURTH  COLLECTION 
OF  HIS  ZERSTREUTE  BLATTER — His  DIDACTIC  TENDENCY 
AND  PREDILECTION  FOR  SA'D!. 

The  epoch-making  work  of  the  English  Orientalists,  and 
above  all,  of  the  illustrious  Sir  William  Jones,  at  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  not  only  laid  the  foundation  of  Sanskrit 
scholarship  in  Europe,  but  also  gave  the  first  direct  impulse 
to  the  Oriental  movement  which  in  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  manifests  itself  so  strikingly  both  in  English 
as  well  as  in  German  literature,  especially  in  the  work  of  the 
poets.  In  Germany  this  movement  came  just  at  the  time 
when  the  idea  of  a  universal  literature  had  taken  hold  of  the 
minds  of  the  leading  literary  men,  and  so  it  was  very  natural 
that  the  pioneer  and  prophet  of  this  great  idea  sho'uld  also  be 
the  first  to  introduce  into  German  poetry  the  new  west-dstliche 
Richtung. 

Herder's  theological  studies  turned  his  attention  to  the  East 
at  an  early  age.  As  is  well  known,  he  always  had  a  fervid 
admiration  for  the  Hebrew  poets,  but  we  have  evidence  to 
show,  that,  even  before  the  year  1771,  when  Jones'  Traitt  stir 
la  potsie  orientate  appeared,  he  had  widened  the  sphere  of  his 
Oriental  studies  and  had  become  interested  in  Sa'di.1  Rhymed 
paraphrases  made  by  him  of  some  stories  from  -the  Gulistdn 
date  from  the  period  1761-1764,"  and,  as  occasional  references 
prove,  Sa'di  continued  to, hold  his  attention  until  the  appear- 
ance, in  1792,  of  the  fourth  Collection  of  the  Zerstreitte  Blatter, 
which  contains  the  bulk  of  Herder's  translation  from  Persian 
and  Sanskrit  literature,  and  which  therefore  will  have  to 
occupy  our  attention.3 

1  See  the  edition  by  Meyer  (KDNL.  vol.  74)  i.  i.  pp.  164,  165. 

2  Given  by  Redlich  in  the  edition  by  Suphan,  vol.  26,  p   435  seq. 

3  We  may  state  here  that  the  work  in  question  has  been  thoroughly  commented  on  by 
such  scholars  as  Duntzer  and    Redlich,  and  their  comments  may  be  found  in  the  editions  of 
Suphan  and  Meyer.    The  same  has  been  done  for  Goethe's  Divan  by  Duntzer  and  Loeper. 

16 


IT 

Of  this  collection  the  following  are  of  interest  to  us  : 
i°.  Four  books  of  translations,  more  or  less  free,  of  maxims 
from  the  Gulistan,  entitled  Blumen  aus  morgenldndischen  Dichtern 
gesammlet.  2°.  Translations  from  the  Sanskrit  consisting  of 
maxims  from  the  Hitdpadesa  and  from  Bhartrhari  and  passages 
from  the  £/iagaradg~ttd  under  the  name  of  Gedanken  einiger 
Bramanen.  3°.  A  number  of  versions  from  Persian,  Sanskrit, 
Hebrew  and  Arabic  poets  given  in  the  Suphan  edition  as 
Vermischte  Stiicke. 

The  first  three  books  of  the  Blumen  consist  entirely  of 
maxims  from  the  Gulistdn,  the  versions  of  Gentius,  or  some- 
times of  Olearius,  being  the  basis,  while  the  fourth  book  con- 
tains also  poems  from  Riimi,  Hafid  and  others  (some  not 
Persian),  taken  mostly  from  Jones'  well  known  Poeseos.1  For 
the  Gedanken  our  poet  made  use  of  Wilkins'  translation  of  the 
Hitdpadesa  (1787)  and  of  the  Bhagavadgita  (1785),  together 
with  the  German  version  of  Bhartrhari  by  Arnold  from  Roger's 
Dutch  rendering. 

As  Herder  did  not  know  either  Sanskrit  or  Persian,  his 
versions  are  translations  of  translations,  and  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing if  the  sense  of  the  original  is  sometimes  verv  much 
altered,  especial Iv  when  we  consider  that  the  translations  on 
which  he  depended  were  not  always  accurate.3  In  most  cases, 
however,  the  sense  is  fairlv  well  preserved,  sometimes  even 
with  admirable  fidelity,  as  in  "Lob  der  Gottheit  "  (/>Y.  i.  i), 
which  is  a  version  of  passages  from  the  introduction  to  the 
Gulistan.  No  attention  whatever  is  paid  to  the  form  of  the 
originals.  For  the  selections  from  Sa'di  the  distich  which  had 
been  used  for  the  versions  from  the  Greek  anthology  is  the 
favorite  form.  Rhyme,  which  in  Persian  poetrv  is  an  indis- 
pensable requisite,  is  never  emploved. 

The  moralixing  lendencv  which  characterixes  all  of  Herder's 
work,  and  which  grew  stronger  as  he  advanced  in  years. 

The  former's  notes  are  in  his  (ioethe-cdition  in  the  Kiirschner-series,  the  hitter's  in  the 
edition  of  I  lempel.  In  this  investigation,  therefore,  the  chapters  on  Herder  and  ( ioothe  are 
somewhat  briefer  than  they  otherwise  would  be,  as  further  details  as  to  source*-,  etc.,  are 
easily  accessible  in  the  editions  just  mentioned.  In  all  cases,  however,  the  Sanskrit  or 
Persian  originals  of  the  passages  cited  have  been  examined. 

1  Poeseos  As  aticac  commentariorum  libri  vi,  publ.  at  London,  1774.  Reprinted  by 
Eichhorn  at  Lei|  /.ig,  1777. 

'*  Compare,  f(  r  instance,  Hit.  couplet  41=  Mohtl.  ^121  with  the  rendering  of  Wilkins  in 
Fables  and  Pro  erbs  from  the  Sanskrit,  London,  iSSS  (Morley's  t'niv.  Lib.',  pp.  41.42. 
And  then  compa  e  with  Herder's  /weckc  des  Lebens  ((led.  15). 


18 

rendered  him  indifferent  to  the  purely  artistic  side  of  poetry. 
He  makes  no  effort  in  his  versions  to  bring  out  what  is  char- 
acteristically Oriental  in  the  original  ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
often  destroys  it.  Thus  his  "  Blume  des  Paradieses  "  (Bl.  iv. 
7  =  H.  548)  is  addressed  to  a  girl  instead  of  a  boy.  The 
fourth  couplet  is  accordingly  altered  to  suit  the  sense,  while 
the  last  couplet,  which  according  to  the  law  governing  the 
construction  of  the  Persian  yazal  contained  the  name  of  the 
poet,  is  omitted.  So  also  in  "  Der  heilige  Wahnsinn  "  (Verm. 
6  =  Gul.  v.  18,  ed.  Platts,  p.  114)  the  characteristic  Persian 
phrase 

*JUoxi  _X**o 

"It  is  necessary  to  survey  Lalla's  beauty  from  the  window  of  Majnun's 
eye  " 

appears  simply  as  "  O  .    ."  .    .    sieh  mit  meinen  Augen  an." 

This  exclusive  interest  in  the  purely  didactic  side  induced 
Herder  also  to  remove  the  maxims  from  the  stories  which  in 
the  Gulistan  or  Hitopadesa  served  as  their  setting.  So  they 
appear  simply  as  general  sententious  literature,  whereas  in 
the  originals  they  are  as  a  rule  introduced  solely  to  illustrate 
or  to  emphasize  some  particular  point  of  the  story.  Then 
again  a  story  may  be  considerably  shortened,  as  in  "Die 
Liige  "  (Bl.  ii.  28  =  Gul.  i.  i),  "Der  heilige  Wahnsinn''  (see 
above).  To  atone  for  such  abridgment  new  lines  embodying 
in  most  cases  a  general  moral  reflection  are  frequently  added. 
Thus  both  the  pieces  just  cited  have  such  additions.  In 
"  Verschiedener  Umgang  "  (Ged.  3  =  Bhart.  Nitis.  67;  Bohtl. 
6781)  the  first  three  lines  are  evidently  inspired  by  the  last  line 
of  the  Sanskrit  proverb :  prciyend  '  dhamamadhyarndttamagundh 
samsargato  jdyate  "in  general  the  lowest,  the  middle  and  the 
highest  quality  arise  from  association,"  but  they  are  in  no 
sense  a  translation. 

What  we  have  given  suffices  to  characterize  Herder  as  a 
translator  or  adapter  of  Oriental  poetry.  His  Eastern  studies 
have  scarcely  exerted  any  influence  on  his  original  poems 
beyond  inspiring  some  fervid  lines  in  praise  of  India  and  its 
dramatic  art  as  exhibited  in  Sakuntala,*  which  had  just  then 

1  Indien,  ed.  Suphan,  vol.  29,  p.  665. 


19 

(I791)  been  translated  by  Forster  into  German  from  the  English 
version  of  Sir  William  Jones.  Unlike  his  illustrious  contem- 
porary Goethe  he  received  from  the  East  no  impulse  that 
stimulated  him  to  production.  His  one-sided  preference  for 
the  purely  didactic  element  rendered  him  indifferent  to  the 
lyric  beauty  of  Hafid  and  caused  him  to  proclaim  Sa'dl  as  the 
model  most  worthy  of  imitation.1  Vet  it  \vas  Hafid,  the 
prince  of  Persian  lyric  poets,  the  singer  of  wine  and  roses, 
who  fired  the  soul  of  Germany's  greatest  poet  and  inspired 
him  to  write  the  Diran,  and  thus  Hafid  became  the  dominating 
influence  and  the  guiding  star  of  the  u>est-ostliclic  Riclitnii;*  in 
German  poetry. 

1  "  An  Hafyz    Gesiingen   haben  wir   fast   genug  ;    Sadi   ist   uns   lehrreicher   gewesen." 
Adrastea  vi.  ed.  Suphan,  vol.  24,  p.  356. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
GOETHE. 

ENTHUSIASM  FOR  SAKUNTALA — DER  GOTT  UND  DIE  BAJA- 
DERE;  DER  PARIA — GOETHE'S  AVERSION  FOR  HINDU 
MYTHOLOGY — ORIGIN  OF  THE  DIVAN — ORIENTAL  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  THE  WORK — INAUGURATES  THE  ORIENTAL 
MOVEMENT. 

In  Wahrheit  und  Dichtung  (B.  xii.  vol.  xxii.  p.  86)  Goethe 
tells  us  that  he  first  became  acquainted  with  Hindu  fables 
through  Dapper's  book  of  travel,1  while  pursuing  his  law 
studies  at  Wetzlar,  in  1771.  He  amused  his  circle  of  literary 
friends  by  relating  stories  of  Rama  and  the  monkey  Hanneman 
(i.  e.  Hanuman),  who  speedily  won  the  favor  of  the  audience 
The  poet  himself,  however,  could  not  get  any  lasting  pleasure 
from  monstrosities;  misshapen  divinities  shocked  his  aesthetic 
sense. 

The  first  time  that  Goethe's  attention  was  turned  seriously 
to  Eastern  literature  was  in  1791,  when,  through  Herder's 
efforts,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Kalidasa's  dramatic  mas- 
terpiece Sakuntald,  which  inspired  the  well  known  epigram 
"  Willst  du  die  Bliite  desfriihen,"  etc.,  an  extravagant  eulogy 
rather  than  an  appreciative  criticism.  That  the  impression 
was  not  merely  momentary  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  five 
years  later  the  poet  took  the  inspiration  for  his  Faust  prologue 
from  Kalidasa's  work.2  Otherwise  it  cannot  be  said  that  the 
then  just  awakening  Sanskrit  studies  exercised  any  considera- 
ble influence  on  his  poetic  activity.  For  his  two  ballads  deal- 
ing with  Indie  subjects,  "  Der  Gott  und  die  Bajadere  "  and 
"Der  Paria",  the  material  was  taken,  not  from  works  of  San- 
skrit literature,  but  from  a  book  of  travel.  The  former  poem 
was  completed  in  1797,  though  the  idea  was  taken  as  early  as 

1  Asia,  Oder :  Ausfiihrliche  Beschreibung,  etc.    See  Benfey,  Orient  u.  Occident,  i.  p. 
721,  note. 

2  See  Diintzer,  Goethes  Faust,  Leipz.  1882,  p.  68. 

20 


21 

1783  from  a  German  version  of  Sonnerat's  travels,  where  the 
story  is  related  according  to  the  account  of  Abraham  Roger1 
in  De  Open-Deure.  There  the  account  is  as  follows:  '''t  Is 

ghebeurt dat   Dewendre,    onder   Menschelijcke    ghe- 

daente,  op  eenen  tijdt  ghekomen  is  by  een  sekere  Hoere,  do 
welcke  hy  heeft  willen  beproeven  of  sy  oock  ghetrouw  was. 
Hy  accordeert  met  haer,  ende  gaf  haer  een  goet  Hoeren  loon. 
Na  den  loon  onthaelde  sy  hem  dien  nacht  heel  wel,  soncler 
dat  sy  haer  tot  slapen  begaf.  Doch  't  soude  in  dien  nacht 
ghebeurt  xijn  dat  Dewendre  sich  geliet  of  hy  stierf  ;  ende 
storf  soo  sv  meynde.  De  Hoere  die  wilde  met  hem  branden, 
haer  Vrienden  en  konde  het  haer  niet  afraden  ;  de  welcke 
haer  voor-hielden  dat  het  haer  Man  niet  en  was.  Maer  nadien 
dat  sy  haer  niet  en  liet  gheseggen,  soo  lietse  het  vver  toe- 
stellen  om  daer  in  te  springen.  Op't  uyterste  ghekomen 
xijnde,  ontwaeckte  Dewendre,  ende  seyde,  dat  hy  hem  hadde 
glielaten  doot  te  /ijn,  alleenlijck  om  te  ondervinden  hare 
trouwe  ;  ende  hy  seyde  haer  toe,  tot  een  loon  van  hare  ghe- 
trouwigheyt,  dat  sy  met  hem  na  Dewendrelocon  (dat  is  een 
der  platsen  der  gelucksaligheyt)  gaen  soude.  Ende  ghelijck 
den  Bramine  seyde,  ist  alsoo  gheschiet."' 

It  will  be  seen  that  Goethe  has  changed  the  storv  considera- 
bly and  for  the  better.  How  infinitely  nobler  is  his  idea  of 
uniting  the  maiden  with  her  divine  lover  on  the  tlaming  pyre 
from  which  both  ascend  to  heaven!  It  mav  also  be  observed 
that  Goethe  substitutes  Mahadeva,  i.  e.  Siva,  for  Dewendre3 
and  assigns  to  him  an  incarnation,  though  such  incarnations 
are  known  onlv  of  Yisnu. 

The  "  Paria,"  a  trilogy  consisting  of  "Gebet."  "  Legende  " 
and  "Dank  des  Paria."  was  begun  in  1X16.  but  not  finished 
until  December,  1821.  Kven  then  it  was  not  quite  complete. 
The  appearance  of  Delavigne's  l.c  I'aria  and  still  more  of 
Michael  Beer's  drama  of  the  same  name,  spurred  Goethe  to  a 
final  effort  and  the  poem  was  published  in  October,  i«Sj^. 


1  This  information  is  given  by  Diint/.er  in  his  Goethe  eel.  (KI)NI..  vol.  S.-i.  vol.  i.  p.  t'  7. 
note.  The  French  ed.  of  Sonnerat,  Paris,  1783,  does  not  contain  the  storv.  The  German 
version  to  which  Dilnt/er  refers  has  not  been  accessible  to  me. 

'J  Roger,  De  Open-Deure,  I.eyden,  it>u,  pp.  i'1".  i'v.  chap.  \\. 

3  It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  Sanskrit  literature  litTi-mira  is  an  epithet  of  Siva  as  well  as  of 
Indra. 


22 

The  direct  source  is  the  legend  which  Sonnerat  tells  of  the 
origin  of  the  Paria-goddess  Mariatale. '  Indirectly,  however, 
the  sources  are  found  in  Sanskrit  literature.  Two  parts  may 
be  distinguished  :  The  story  of  the  temptation  and  punish- 
ment, and  the  story  of  the  interchange  of  heads.'  The  for- 
mer story  is  that  of  the  ascetic  Jamadagni  and  his  wife 
Renuka,  who  was  slain  by  her  son  Rama  at  the  command  of 
the  ascetic  himself,  in  punishment  for  her  yielding  to  an 
impure  desire  on  beholding  the  prince  Citraratha.  Subse- 
quently at  the  intercession  of  Rama  she  is  again  restored  to 
life  through  Jamadagni's  supernatural  power.  The  story  is 
in  Mahdbharata  iii.  c.  116  seq.s  and  also  in  the  Bhdgavata 
Purdna,  Bk.  ix.  c.  i6,4  though  here  the  harshness  of  the  original 
version  is  somewhat  softened.6 

The  second  story  is  found  in  the  Vetdlapaficavtms'ati,  being 
the  sixth  of  the  "twenty-five  tales  of  a  corpse-demon,"  which 
are  also  found  in  the  twelfth  book  of  the  Kathdsarttsagara.* 
It  relates  how  Madanasundari,  whose  husband  and  brother-in- 
law  had  beheaded  themselves  in  honor  of  Durga,  is  com- 
manded by  the  goddess  to  restore  the  corpses  to  life  by  join- 
ing to  each  its  own  head,  and  how  by  mistake  she  interchanges 
these  heads. 

The  two  stories  were  fused  into  one  and  so  we  get  the 
legend  in  the  form  in  which  Sonnerat  presents  it.  Goethe 
followed  this  form  closely  without  inventing  anything.  He 
did,  however,  put  into  the  poem  an  ethical  content  and  a 
noble  idea.  Both  the  Indie  ballads  are  a  fervent  plea  for  the 
innate  nobility  of  humanity. 

Here  the  influence  of  India  on  Goethe's  work  ends.  The 
progress  of  Sanskrit  studies  could  not  fail  to  excite  the  inter- 
est of  the  poet  whose  boast  was  his  cosmopolitanism,7  but 

1  Voyage  aux  Indes  et  &  la  Chine,  Paris,  1782,  i.  244  seq. 

-  See  Benfey,  Goethes  Gedicht  Legende  und  dessen  indisches  Vorbild  in  Or.  u.  Occ.  i. 
719-732.  Benfey  erroneously  supposes  the  material  of  the  poem  to  have  been  derived  from 
Dapper. 

3  Bombay  edition  ;  cf.  also  Engl.  trans,  of  Mahabh.  ed.  Roy,  vol.  iii.  p.  358  seq. 

4  Nirn.  Sag.  Press  ed.  Bomb.  1898,  p.  407  seq.     Cf.  also  Engl.  tr.  in  Wealth  of  India  ed. 
Dutt,  Calc.  1895,  pp.  62,  63. 

5  For  other  Sanskrit  sources  see  Petersb.  Lex.  sub  voce  renukA. 

'  Nirn.  Sag.  Press  ed.,  Bombay,  1889,  p.  481  seq.  Cf.  also  Engl.  tr.  by  Tawney,  vol.  ii. 
p.  261  seq. 

"  See  for  instance  his  discussion  of  Sakuntala,  GitagOvinda  and  MgghadQta  in  Indische 
Dichtung,  written  1821.  Vol.  29,  p.  809. 


23 

they  did  not  incite  him  to  production.  For  India's  mythology, 
its  religion  and  its  abstrusest  of  philosophies  he  felt  nothing 
but  aversion.  Especially  hateful  to  him  were  the  mythologi- 
cal monstrosities  : 

Und  so  will  ich,  ein  ftir  allemal, 

Keine  Bestien  in  dem  GOttersaal ! 

Die  leidigen  Elephantenriissel, 

Das  umgeschlungene  Schlangengentissel, 

Tief  Urschildkrot'  im  Weltensumpf, 

Viel  Konigskopf  auf  einem  Rumpf, 

Die  miissen  uns  zur  Verzweifltmg  bringen, 

Wird  sie  nicht  reiner  Ost  verschlingen.1 

Goethe  classed  Indie  antiquities  with  those  of  Egvpt  and 
China,  and  his  attitude  towards  the  question  of  their  value  is 
distinctly  expressed  in  one  of  his  prose  proverbs  :  ''Chinesi- 
sche,  Indische,  Aegyptische  Altertiimer  sind  immer  nur  Curi- 
ositaten  :  es  ist  sehr  wohl  gethan,  sich  und  die  Welt  damit 
bekannt  zu  machen  ;  xu  sittlicher  und  aesthetischer  Bildung 
aber  warden  sie  uns  wenig  fruchten."" 

After  all,  Goethe's  Orient  did  not  extend  beyond  the  Indus. 
It  was  confined  mainly  to  Persia  and  Arabia,  with  an  occa- 
sional excursion  into  Turkey. 

To  this  Orient  he  turned  at  the  time  of  Germanv's  deepest 
political  degradation,  when  the  best  part  of  its  soil  was  oxer- 
run  bv  a  foreign  invader,  and  when  the  whole  nation  nerved 
itself  for  the  life  and  death  struggle  that  was  to  break  its 
chains.  The  aged  poet  shrank  from  the  tumult  and  strife 
about  him  and  took  refuge  in  the  East.  The  opening  lines  of 
the  first  Divan  poem  express  the  motive  of  this  poetical 
Ifegire. 

The  history  of  the  composition  of  the  Hiran  is  too  well 
known  to  require  repetition.  It  is  given  with  great  detail  in 
the  editions  prepared  by  von  Loeper  and  Diint/er.5  Suffice  it 
to  sav  that  the  direct  impulse  to  the  composition  of  the  work 
was  the  appearance,  in  1812.  of  the  first  complete  version  of 
Persia's  greatest  lyric  poet  Hit  fid,  bv  the  famous  Viennese 
Orientalist  von  Hammer.  The  bulk  of  the  poems  were  written 

1  Vol.  ii.  p.    ;s2-         "  Spriiche  in  Prosa,  vol.  10,  p.  n;. 

3  See  also  Konrail  Hunlach.  (iocthc's  VVest-Ostlicher  Divan,  Giiethe  Jalubucli.  vol 
xvii.  Appendix. 


24 

between  the  years  1814  and  1819,'  although  in  the  work  as  we 
now  have  it  a  number  of  poems  are  included  which  arose 
later  than  1819  and  were  added  to  the  editions  of  1827  and 

1837." 

The  idea  of  dividing  the  collection  into  books  was  suggested 
by  the  fact  that  two  of  Hafid's  longer  poems  bear  the  titles 
Sje\J>  -i'Lvw,  XjcU  ,tfAJb°,  i.  e.  "book  of  the  cup-bearer"  and 
"book  of  the  minstrel,"  as  well  as  by  the  seven-fold  division 
which  Sir  William  Jones  had  made  of  Oriental -poetry.8  For 
the  heroic  there  was  no  material,  nor  were  some  of  the  other 
divisions  suitable  for  Goethe's  purpose.  So  only  the  Buck  der 
Liebe  and  the  Buck  des  Unnwts  (to  correspond  to  satire)  could  be 
formed.  Other  books  \vere  formed  in  an  analogous  manner 
until  they  were  twelve  in  number.  The  poet  originally 
intended  to  make  them  of  equal  length,  but  this  intention  he 
never  carried  out,  and  so  they  are  of  very  unequal  extent,  the 
longest  being  that  of  Suleika  (53  poems)  and  the  shortest 
those  of  Timur  and  of  the  Parsi  (two  poems  each). 

The  great  majority  of  the  Divan-poems  are  not  in  any  sense 
translations  or  reproductions,  but  entirely  original  composi- 
tions inspired  by  the  poet's  Oriental  reading  and  study.  The 
thoroughness  and  earnestness  of  these  studies  is  attested  by  the 
explanatory  notes  which  were  added  to  the  Divan  and  were 
published  with  it  in  i8i9,4  and  \vhich  show  conclusively,  that, 
although  Goethe  could  not  read  Persian  poetry  in  the  original, 
he  nevertheless  succeeded  admirably  in  entering  into  its 
spirit. 

We  have  mentioned  Hammer's  translation  of  Hiifid  as  the 
direct  impulse  to  the  composition  of  the  Divan.  It  was  also 
the  principal  source  from  which  the  poet  drew  his  inspiration 
for  the  work.  A  single  verse  would  often  furnish  a  theme  for 
a  poem.  Sometimes  this  poem  would  be  a  translation,  e.g. 
"  Eine  Stelle  suchte  der  Liebe  -Schmerz,"  p.  54  (H.  356.  8)  ; 
but  more  often  it  was  a  very  free  paraphrase,  e.  g.  the  motto 
prefixed  to  Buck  Hafis,  a  variation  of  the  motto  to  Hammer's 

1  More  than  200  poems  out  of  284  date  from  the  years  1814,  1815  alone.    Loeper  in  vol. 
vi.  preface,  p.  xxviii. 
*  Loeper,  ibid.  p.  xv. 

3  Poeseos,  The  W?rks  of  Sir  William  Jones,  ed.  Lord  Teignmouth,  London,  1807,  vol. 
vi.  chapters'i2-i8. 

4  Based  mainly  on  information  contained  in  Hammer's  Gesch.  der  schonen  Redekiinste 
Pirsiens,  Wien,  1818. 


25 

version  (H.  222.  9).  As  an  example  of  how  a  single  verse  is 
developed  into  an  original  poem  we  may  cite  "  Uber  meines 
Liebchens  Augeln,"  p.  55,  where  the  first  stanza  is  a  version 
of  H.  221.  i,  all  the  others  being  free  invention.  Other  Per- 
sian poets  besides  Hand  also  furnished  material.  Thus  the 
opening  passage  of  Sa'dl's  Gulistdn  was  used  for  "  Im  Athem- 
holen,"  p.  10,  where  the  sense,  however,  is  altered  and  the 
line  "So  sonderbar  ist  das  Leben  gemischt  "  is  added.  A 
number  of  poems  are  based  on  the  Pand  Ndmah  of  'Attar,  e.  g. 
pp.  58,  60,'  and  two  are  taken  from  Firdausi,  namely  "  Fir- 
clusi  spricht,"  p.  75  (Sh.  N.  i.  p.  62,  couplet  538;  Mohl,  i. 
84;  Fundgruben.  ii.  64)  and  "Was  machst  du  an  der  Welt  ?" 
p.  96  (Sh.  X.  i.  p.  482,  coupl.  788,  789;  Red.  p.  58).  But 
it  was  not  only  the  poetical  works  of  Persia  that  were 
laid  under  contribution;  sayings,  anecdotes,  descriptions, 
remarks  of  any  kind  in  books  of  travel  and  the  like  were 
utilized  as  well.  Thus  Hammer  in  the  preface  to  his  version 
of  Hafid  relates  \\\t  fatvd  or  judgment  which  a  famous  iimffi  of 
Constantinople  pronounced  on  the  poems  of  the  great  singer, 
and  this  gave  Goethe  the  idea  for  his  "Fetwa, "  p.  32.  '2  In 
the  same  preface3  is  related  the  well  known  replv  which 
Hafid  is  reported  to  have  given  to  Timur,  when  called  to 
account  bv  the  latter  for  the  sentiment  of  the  first  couplet  of 
the  famous. eighth  ode,  and  this  inspired  the  poem  "  Iliitt'  ich 
irgend  wol  Bedenken,"  p.  133.  Similarlv  "  Yom  heutigen 
Tag,"  p.  94,  is  based  on  the  words  of  an  inscription  over  a 
caravansery  at  Ispahan  found  in  Chardin's  book.  The  storv 
of  Bahramgur  and  Dilaram  inventing  rhvme4  gave  rise  to  the 
poem  "  Behramgur,  sagt  man,"  p.  153.  And  so  we  might  cite 
poems  from  other  sources,  Quran,  Jones'  /W.ww,  Die/'  Hitch 
lies  Kabus,  etc.,  but  the  examples  we  have  given  are  sufficient 
to  show  how  Goethe  used  his  material. 

Throughout  the  Hiran  Persian  similes  and  metaphors  are 
copiously  emploved  and  help  to  create-  a  genuine  Oriental 
atmosphere.  The  adoration  of  the  dust  on  the  path  of  the 

1  (liven   in  Fundgruben  dcs  Orients,   Wicn,  1809,  vol.   ii.  pp.   _•_•;,  4^5,  in  the   Freiu-h 
translation  of  de  Sacy. 
'•*  Op.  cit.  p.  xxxiv. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  xvi.  xvii. 

4  Red.  p.   35  ;    1'izzi,  Storia  della   I'oesia   I'ersiana,  Torino,  18,14,  vol.  i.  ]i.  7.     This  storv 
inspired  also  the  scene  between  Helena  and  Faust.     Faust,  Act  iii.    See  Di'mtzer,  Gocihes 
Faust,  Leipz.,  188^,  ii.  p.  210. 


beloved,  p.  23  (cf.  H.  497.  10);  the  image  of  the  candle  that 
is  consumed  by  the  flame  as  the  lover  is  by  yearning,  p.  54 
(cf.  H.  414.  4);  the  love  of  the  nightingale  for  the  rose,  p. 
125  (cf.  H.  318.  i);  the  lover  captive  in  the  maiden's  tresses, 
p.  46  (cf.  H.  338.  i) ;  the  arrows  of  the  eye  lashes,  p.  129 
(cf.  H.  173.  2);  the  verses  strung  together  like  pearls,  p.  193 
(cf.  H.  499.  n),  are  some  of  the  peculiarly  Persian  metaphors 
that  occur.  Allusions  to  the  loves  of  Yusuf  and  Zali^a,  of 
Laila  and  Majnfm  and  of  other  Oriental  couples  are  repeatedly 
brought  in.  Moreover,  a  whole  book  is  devoted  to  the  sdql 
so  familiar  to  students  of  Hafid,  and  Goethe  does  not  shrink 
from  alluding  to  the  subject  of  boy-love,  p.  181. 

A  great  many  of  the  poems,  however,  do  not  owe  their 
inspiration  to  the  Orient,  and  many  are  completely  unoriental. 
Such  are,  for  instance,  those  of  the  Randsch  Namah,  express- 
ing, as  they  do,  Goethe's  opinions  on  contemporary  literary 
and  aesthetic  matters.  Again,  many  are  inspired  by  personal 
experiences,  and,  as  is  now  well  known,  the  whole  Buch 
Suleika  owes  its  origin  to  the  poet's  love  for  Marianne  von 
Willemer;  some  of  its  finest  poems  have  been  proved  to  have 
been  written  by  this  gifted  lady.  Such  poems,  written  under 
the  impressions  of  some  actual  occurrence,  were  sometimes 
subsequently  orientalized.  Some  striking  illustrations  of  this 
are  given  by  Burdach  in  the  essay  which  we  cited  before  and 
to  which  we  refer. 

As  the  Divan  was  an  original  work,  though  inspired  by 
Oriental  sources,  Goethe  did  not  feel  the  necessity  of  imitat- 
ing the  extremely  artificial  forms  of  his  Oriental  models. 
Besides,  he  knew  of  these  forms  only  indirectly  through  the 
work  of  Jones.  What  Hammer's  versions  could  teach  him  on 
this  point  was  certainly  very  little.  Perhaps  he  did  not 
realize  what  an  essential  element  form  is  in  Persian  poetry, 
that,  in  fact,  it  generally  predominates  over  the  thought,  and 
this  so  much  that  the  unity  of  a  yazal  is  entirely  dependent 
on  the  recurrence  of  the  rhyme.  Instead  of  such  recurrent 
rhyme  he  employs  changing  rhyme  and  free  strophes.  Only 
twice  does  he  attempt  anything  like  an  imitation  of  the  yazal, 
but  in  neither  case  does  he  satisfy  the  technical  rules  of  this 
poetic  form. ' 

1  In  tausend  Formen,  p.  169  ;  Sie  haben  wcgen  iler  Trunkenheit,  p.  178. 


27 

From  all  this  we  see  that  Goethe  in  the  Divan  preserves  his 
poetic  independence.  He  remains  a  citizen  of  the  West, 
though  he  chooses  to  dwell  for  a  time  in  the  East.  As  a  rule 
he  takes  from  there  only  what  he  finds  congenial  to  his  own 
nature.  So  we  can  understand  his  attitude  towards  mysticism. 
He  has  no  love  for  it;  it  was  utterly  incompatible  with  his 
own  habit  of  clear  thinking.  Speaking  of  Ruml,  the  prince 
of  mystics,  he  doubts  if  this  poet  could  give  a  clear  account  of 
his  own  doctrine;1  the  grades  by  which,  according  to  Sufi-doc- 
trine, man  rises  to  ultimate  union  with  the  Godhead  he  calls 
follies. *  Therefore  to  him  Hafid  was  the  singer  of  real  love, 
real  roses  and  real  wine,  and  this  conception  of  the  great  lyric- 
poet  was  also  adopted  by  all  the  later  Hafizian  singers.3  Un- 
fortunately it  cannot  be  said  that  it  is  quite  correct.  For 
even  if  we  ignore  the  mystical  interpretation  which  Oriental 
commentators  give  to  the  wine  of  Haficl,  we  cannot  possibly 
ignore  the  fact  that  the  love  of  which  he  sings  is  never  the 
ideal  love  for  woman,  but  mostly  the  love  for  a  handsome 
boy/ 

With  the  'Divan  Goethe  inaugurated  the  Oriental  movement 
in  German  poetry,  which  Riickert,  Platen  and  Bodenstedt 
carried  to  its  culmination.  These  late*-  Ilafizian  singers 
remembered  gratefully  what  they  owed  the  sage  of  Weimar. 
Riickert  pavs  his  tribute  to  him  in  the  opening  poem  of  his 
Ostlichc  Rosen,  where  he  hails  him  as  lord  of  the  ICast  as  he  has 
been  the  star  of  the  West.'1  And  Platen  offers  to  him  rever- 
entially his  first  Ghasclcn  : 

Der  Orient  sei  nru  bewejrt. 

Soil  nicht  n;ich  clir  die  Welt  vei  niiclitei  n. 

I)u  selhst,  du  bast's  in  ims  errejit  : 

So  nimm  bier,  \v;is  ein  f tingling  schtichtern 

In  eines  (Ireisen   Iliinde  le^'t.1' 

The  poetic  spirit  of  the  Orient  had  been  brought  into  Ger- 
man literature;  it  was  reserved  tor  Riickert  and  Platen  to 
complete  the  work  bv  bringing  over  also  the  poetic  forms. 

1  N'oten  u.  Abhandlungen,  p.  2fK>.        -  Ibid.  p.  .-64. 

3  That  (ioethc  knew  of  the  mystic  interpretation  to  which  Ililtnl  is  subjected  by  Oriental 
commentators   is  evident  from  "  Offenbar  (ieheimnis,"    p.   38,   and    from    the   next   poem 
"  Wink,"  p.  3Q. 

4  See  Paul  Horn,  Was  verdanken  \vir  Persian?,  in  Nord  u.  Slid,  Sept.  i^oo,  p.   <8o. 

5  Riickcrt's  Werke,  vol.  v.  280.         "  Platen,  Werke,  i.  p.  255. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SCHILLER. 
SCHILLER'S  INTEREST  IN  SAK.UNTALA — TURANDOT. 

While  the  Orient,  as  we  have  seen,  cast  its  spell  over  Ger- 
many's greatest  poet  and  inspired  the  lyric  genius  of  his  later 
years  for  one  of  its  most  remarkable  efforts,  it  remained 
practically  without  any  influence  on  his  illustrious  friend  and 
brother-poet  Schiller.  If  Schiller  had  lived  longer,  it  is  not 
impossible  that  he  too  might  have  contributed  to  the  West- 
Eastern  literature.  As  it  is,  however,  he  died  before  the 
Oriental  movement  in  Germany  had  really  begun.  At  no 
time  did  he  feel  any  particular  interest  in  the  East.  Once, 
indeed,  he  mentions  Sakuntald.  Goethe  had  drawn  his  atten- 
tion to  a  German  version  of  the  Gitagdvinda  and  this  reminded 
Schiller  of  the  famous  Hindu  drama  which  he  read  with  the 
idea  of  possibly  utilizing  it  for  the  theatre.1  This  idea  he 
abandons  owing  to  the  delicacy  of  the  piece  and  its  lack  of 
movement. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  prove  that  to  Kalidasa's  drama 
Schiller  was  indebted  for  the  motive  of  his  "Alpenjager, "  but 
it  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  successful.2 

Though  there  was  no  direct  Oriental  influence  on  Schiller's 
poetry,  there  is  one  dramatic  poem  of  his  which  indirectly 
goes  back  to  a  Persian  source.  It  is  Turandot.  The  direct 
source  for  this  composition  was  Gozzi's  play  of  the  same  name 
in  the  translation  of  August  Clemens  Werthes,  which  Schiller, 
however,  used  with  such  freedom  that  his  own  play  may  be 
regarded  as  an  original  production  rather  than  a  version. 
The  Italian  poet  based  his  fiaba  on  the  story  of  Prince  Kalaf 
in  the  Persian  tales  of  Petis  de  La  Croix.3  Now,  as  has 

1  A  Letter  dated  from  Weimar,  Feb.  20,  1802.    Briefwechsel  zwischen  Schiller  u.  Goethe. 
Stuttg.  (Cottai  s.  A.,  vol.  iv.  p.  98. 

2  W.  Sauer  in  Korrespondenzblatt  f.  d.   Gelehrten  u.  Realschulen  Wiirttembergs,  XL. 
pp.  2137-304.     Against  this  view  Ernst  Mliller  in  Zeitschr.  flir  vgl.  Litteraturgesch.,  Neue 
Kolge,  viii.  pp.  271-278. 

3  Les  Mille  et  Un  Jours.tr.  Petis  de  La  Croix,  ed.  Loiseleur— Deslongchamps,  Paris,  1843, 
p.  69  seq. 

28 


29 

been  pointed  out  by  scholars,1  the  name  of  the  heroine,  who 
gives  the  name  to  the  play,  is  genuinely  Persian,  Turdn-duyt^ 
"  the  daughter  of  Turan,"8  and  although  the  scene  is  laid  in 
China,  most  of  the  proper  names,  both  in  Goxxi  and  Schiller, 
are  not  at  all  Chinese,  but  Persian  or  Arabic.  The  oldest 
known  model  for  the  story  is  the  fourth  romance  of  Xidami's 
Haft  Palkar,  the  story  of  Bahrumgfir  and  the  Russian 
princess,  written  1197."  Whether  Schiller  was  aware  of  the 
ultimate  origin  of  the  legend  or  not,  he  certainly  made  no 
attempt  to  give  Persian  local  color  to  his  piece,  but  on  the 
contrary  he  studiously  tried  to  impart  to  it  a  Chinese  atmos- 
phere.4 It  is  interesting  nevertheless  to  notice  that  when 
Turandot  was  given  at  Hamburg  (Julv  9  to  Sept.  9,  1802)  its 
real  provenience  was  recognixed,  and,  accordingly  Turandot 
was  no  longer  the  princess  of  China,  but  that  of  Shira/.  her 
father  being  transformed  into  the  Shah  of  Persia  and  the 
doctors  of  the  dirdn  into  Oriental  Magi.5  At  Dresden  the 
same  thing  happened,  and  here  even  Tartaglia  and  Hrigella. 
who  had  been  allowed  to  retain  their  Italian  names  in  Ham- 
burg, were  made  to  assume  the  Oriental  names  of  Babouk 
and  Osmin.  The  specifically  Chinese  riddles  disappeared, 
and  instead  of  Tien  and  Folii.  Ilormux  was  now  invoked.6 

1  Hammer,  Reil.  p.  116;  Pizzi,  Storia  della  Poesia  Pcrsiana,  p.  420. 

2  Cf.  name  of  MihrSb's  wife,  Slndu^t,  Sh.  N.  tr.  Molil  i.  p.   192  ct  passim;  PfirJndu^t, 
daughter  of  Xusrau  Parvlz,  Mlr^vSnd  tr.  Rehatsek,  vol.  i.  p.  403. 

3  See  Eth^,  Gesch.  der  pers.  L.itt.  in  Grdr.  d.  iran.  Phil.  ii.  p  242. 

4  See  Albert  Kiister's  essay  on  Turandot  in  Schiller  als  Dramaturg,  Berl.  iSgi,  p.  201. 
*  Kiister,  op.  cit.  p.  212.        •  Ibid.  p.  213. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  SCHLEGELS. 

FRVEDRICH  SCHLEGEL'S  WEISHEIT  DER  INDIKR — FOUNDATION  OF 
SANSKRIT  STUDY  IN  GERMANY. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  period  of  the  foundation  of 
Sanskrit  philology  in  Germany.  English  statesmanship  had 
completed  the  material  conquest  of  India;  German  scholar- 
ship now  began  to  join  in  the  spiritual  conquest  of  that 
country.  With  this  undertaking  the  names  of  Friedrich  and 
August  Wilhelm  Schlegel  are  prominently  identified.  The 
chief  work  of  these  brothers  lies  in  the  field  of  philosophy, 
translation  and  criticism,  and  is  therefore  beyond  the  scope  of 
this  investigation.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Friedrich's  famous  little 
book  Die  Weisheit  der  I  tidier,  published  in  1808,  besides  marking 
the  beginning  of  Sanskrit  studies  and  comparative  grammar  in 
Germany, '  is  also  of  interest  to  vis  because  here  for  the  first  time 
a  German  version  of  selections  from  the  Mahdbhdrata,  Rdmdyana 
and  the  Code  of  Mann,  as  well  as  a  description  of  some  of  the 
most  common  Sanskrit  metres  is  presented,5  and  an  attempt 
is  even  made  to  reproduce  these  metres  in  the  translation. 
The  work  of  August  Wilhelm  Schlegel  as  critic,  translator 
and  editor  of  important  works  from  Sanskrit  literature  is  too 
familiar  to  need  more  than  mention.3  It  is  well  known  that 
to  his  lectures  Heine  owed  his  fondness  for  the  lotus-flowers 
and  gazelles  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges. 

On  the  poetry  of  the  Schlegels  their  Oriental  studies  exer- 
cised very  little  influence.  Friedrich  translated  some  maxims 
from  the  Hitopadesa  and  from  Bhartrhari ;"  August  likewise 
translated  from  the  same  works,  as  well  as  from  the  Epics 

1  See  Benfey,  Gesch.  der  Sprachwissenschaft  und  orient.  Philologie  in  Deutschland, 
Mi'mchen,  1869,  pp.  361-369. 

•  The  sloka,  the  tristubh  and  the  jagati  metre  are  described,  the  last  two,  however,  not 
by  name.     Narada's  speech,  p.  236,  is  in  sloka,  16  syllables  to  the  line;  the  first  distich,  p. 
333,  is  in  tristubk,  22  syllables  to  the  line.     Quantity  of  course  is  ignored. 

3  See  Benfey,  op.  cit.  pp.  379-405. 

*  Friedr.  Schlegel,  Sammtliche  Werke,  Wien,  1846.  vol.  ii.  p.  82  seq. 

30 


31 

and  Puranas. '  There  are  only  two  original  poems  of  his  that 
have  anything  to  do  with  India,  and  both  of  these  were  writ- 
ten before  he  had  begun  the  study  of  Sanskrit.  The  first  is 
"  Die  Bestattung  des  Braminen,"2  a  somewhat  morbid  descrip- 
tion of  the  burning  of  a  corpse.  It  was  addressed  to  his 
brother  Karl  August,  who  had  joined  a  Hanoverian  regiment 
in  the  service  of  the  East  India  Company.  The  second  of 
these  poems  is  "  Neoptolemus  an  Diokles"  (ii.  13),  written  in 
1800,  and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  this  same  brother  who 
had  died  at  Madras  in  lyHg.3  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is 
really  nothing  Oriental  in  the  spirit  of  the  poem. 

Aside  from  translations,  the  only  poems  that  are  con- 
nected with  Schlegel's  Sanskrit  studies,  are  the  epigrams 
against  his  illustrious  contemporaries,  Bopp  and  Riickert. 
Those  against  the  former  (ii.  234)  are  of  no  special  interest 
here.  With  those  against  Riickert,  however,  the  case  is  differ- 
ent. It  is  worth  while  noting  that  towards  the  distinguished 
scholar-poet  Schlegel  assumed  a  patronizing  attitude.  To 
Riickert's  masterly  renderings  from  Sanskrit  literature  he 
referred  slightingly  as  "  Sanskritpoesiemetriknachahmungen  " 
(ii.  235).  But  when  he  hailed  the  younger  poet  as 

Allcr  morgenland'schen  Zaunc  Konig, 
Wechselsweise  zeisigkranichttmig  !     (ii.  218), 

he  came  much  nearer  to  the  truth  than  he  imagined  at  the 
time.  For,  while  it  will  be  conceded  that  Riickert  did  not 
always  sing  with  equal  power,  it  also  is  indisputable  that  he 
is  the  leading  spirit  in  the  movement  under  investigation. 
But  we  shall  not  anticipate  a  discussion  of  this  poet's  work, 
which  is  reserved  for  a  succeeding  chapter. 

1  Aug.  W.  Sclilcgel,  Sainintliclic  Werke.  I.eip/..  184(1.  vol.  iii.  p.  7  se<|.         -  Ibid.  i.  p.  S.v 
:i  Kricdr.  Schlcgel,  Weislieit  ilcr  Indier,  pref.  pp.  xii,  xiii.     See  also  prefatory  remarks 
to  the  poem  in  question. 


CHAPTER   VII. 
PLATEN. 

His  ORIENTAL  STUDIES — GHASELEN — THEIR  PERSIAN  CHARAC- 
TER— IMITATION  OF  PERSIAN  FORM — TRANSLATIONS. 

The  first  to  introduce  the  yazal  in  its  strict  form  into  German 
literature1  was  Riickert,  who  in  1821  published  a  version  of  a 
number  of  yazals  from  the  divan  of  Rumi."  Chronologically, 
therefore,  he  ought  to  have  the  precedence  in  this  investigation. 
If  we,  nevertheless,  take  up  Platen  first,  we  do  so  because  the 
yazals  of  this  poet  were  really  the  first  professedly  original 
poems  of  this  form  to  appear  in  Germany  (Riickert's  claiming 
to  be  versions  only),  and  also  because  they  constitute  almost 
the  only  portion  of  his  poetic  work  that  comes  within  the 
sphere  of  this  discussion.  Moreover,  the  remarks  which  we 
shall  make  concerning  their  content,  imagery,  and  poetic 
structure,  apply  largely  to  the  yazals  of  Riickert  and  also  to 
his  Ostliche  Ro&n,  if  we  except  the  structure  of  the  latter. 

Platen  became  interested  in  the  East  through  the  work  of 
Hammer,  and  still  more  through  the  influence  of  Goethe's 
Divan.  He  at  once  set  to  work  studying  Persian,  and  his  zeal 
was  increased  when,  on  meeting  Riickert  in  1820  at  Ebern, 
and  again  at  Niirnberg,  he  received  encouragement  and 
instruction  from  that  scholarly  poet.  Above  all,  the  appear- 
ance of  the  latter's  versions  from  Riimi  gave  him  a  powerful 
stimulus,  and  in  1821  the  first  series  of  his  Ghaselen  appeared 
at  Erlangen.  Others  followed  in  rapid  succession.  The  same 
year  a  second  series  appeared  at  Leipzig;3  a  third  series, 
united  under  the  title  Spiegel  des  Hafis,  appeared  at  Erlangen 
the  next  year;4  and,  lastly,  a  series  called  Neue  Ghaselen 

1  We  might  say  into  European  literature.     The  only  previous  attempts,  as  far  as  we 
know,  to  reproduce  this  form  were  made  by  Jones,  who  translated  a  ghazal  of  Jam!  (Works, 
vol.  ii.  p.  501)    into   English,  and  by  a  certain  Tommaso  Chabert,  who  translated  several 
ghazals  of  JamI  into  Italian  (Kundgruben,  vol.  i.  pp.  16-19). 

2  In  Taschenbuch  fiir  Damen,  which  was  already  published  in   1820,  thus  establishing 
RUckert's   priority  over  Platen.       See  C.   Beyer,  Neue   Mittheilungen   liber   Friedrich 
Riickert,  Leipz.  1873,  p.  14;  also  letter  to  Cotta,  ibid.  pp.  113,  114. 

3  Published  in  Lyrische  Blatter.        4  In  Vermischte  Schriften. 

32 


33 

appeared  in  the  same  place  in  1823.  A  fc\v  yaza/s  arose  later. 
some  being  published  as  late  as  1836  and  1839.' 

We  shall  confine  our  discussion  to  those  yazals  that  date 
from  the  years  1821  and  1822,  the  last  series  being  Persian  in 
nothing  but  form. 

The  Ghaselen  are  not  at  all  translations.  Like  the  Divan- 
poems  they  are  original  creations,  inspired  by  the  reading  of 
IJiifid,  and,  to  use  the  poet's  own  words  "  dem  Hafis  nachge- 
fiihlt  und  nachgedichtet."2  They  follow  as  closely  as  possible 
the  Persian  metrical  rules,  and  make  use  throughout  of  Persian 
images  and  metaphors,  so  much  so  that  we  can  adduce  direct 
parallels  from  the  poems  of  Hafid.  Thus  in  13"  we  read: 
"Schenke!  Tulpen  sind  wie  Kelche  Weines,"  evidently  a 
parallel  to  some  such  line  as  H.  541.  i  : 

Lo        L** 


^x  \  o  a       /^ 

"  sayi,  come!  for  the  tulip-like  goblet  is  filled  with  wine." 
In  75  the  words  "Weil  ihren  goldnen  Busen  doch  vor  euch 
verschliesst  die  Rose"  are  an  echo  of  H.  300.  2  : 

JoLo 


''like  the  rose-bud,  how  can  its  inward  secret  remain  con- 
cealed?" (cf.  also  H.  23.  3).  And  again  in  85  "  U»nd  nun  .  . 
.  .  .  entrinnet  dem  Her/en  das  Blut  leicht,  das  sonst  mir  den 
Odem  benahm  "  is  to  be  compared  with  H.  11.9: 


"the    sorrowful    heart   of    IJfifid,    which    through    separation 
from  thee  is  full  of  blood."      Furthermore  in  81  we  read  : 

I)u  finest  im  liehlichen  Tiu^nct/  der  Haare  die  ganxc  Welt,  — 
Als  spiegelhaltende  Sklavin  yewahre  die  jian/e  Welt  ! 

For  the  first  line  compare  I_l  .    102.   i  : 


^J  o     (^j  r 

"there    is    no    one    who    has   not    been  snared  bv  that    doubled 
tress,"   and  for  the  second  line  compare  H.  470.    i  : 

1  Platens  Werkc  (Cotta),  vol.  ii.    See  p.  7,  note,  where  information  is  given  as  tn  place 
and  date  of  these  poems. 

a  Dedication  of  Spiepel  des  Hatis  to  Otto  von  Hiilou  ,  vol.  i.  p.  .-(15. 

3  We  cite  the  (ihaselen  t>v  the  number  in  vol.  ii.  of  the  edition  here  used. 


34 


_:   JL»J=>   J  Jauul  v^ 

"  O,  thou  of  whose  beauty  the  sun  is  the  mirror-holder!" 
In  86  the  idea  of  the  young  men  slain  like  game  by  the  beauty 
of  the  beloved  is  evidently  inspired  by  H.  358.  6  : 

Xu*J^«J&  v  J>  «J> 


"in  every  nook    thine    eye  has  a  hundred    slain  ones  fallen 
like  me,"  and  the  following  lines  in  the  same  poem  86  : 

O  welche  Pfeile  strahlt  zu  mir  dein  Antlitz, 
Und  es  befreit  kein  Schild  von  deiner  Sch8nheit, 

remind  us  of  H.  561.  7  : 

Jolv  tXS'^jLa*.  wx*«  vl  viLi<X&.  «J>  *-<&£*• 

"thine  eye  causes  the  arrow  (lit.  poplar)  to  pass  through 
the  shield  of  life." 

Again  and  again  we  meet  with  allusions  to  the  famous 
image  of  the  love  of  the  nightingale  for  the  rose  (35,  75,  etc.) 
so  common  in  Persian  poetry,  especially  in  Hafid.  We  cite 
only  318.  i  : 

<xX?    -Xls 


js      Nt 

"the  whole  thought  of  the  nightingale  is  that  the  rose  may 
be  his  beloved  ;  the  rose  has  in  her  thought  how  she  may 
show  grace  in  her  actions."  In  302.  i  the  nightingale  is  called 
Jo  (j«.j^.  "the  rose's  bride." 

Besides  this,  the  poems  teem  with  characteristic  Persian 
metaphors:  the  moth  longing  for  the  flame  (37,  H.  187.  7); 
the  tulip-bed  glowing  like  fire  (67,  H.  288.  i);  the  tulip- 

cheek   +,  \  &Jbi   (whence  Moore's  Lalla  RookJi),   s!<Xfc&J^   (70, 

^^  S"  I 

H.  155.  2);  the  musk-perfumed  hair  \£j&£u&  ^ju\  (73,  H. 
33.  4);  the  garden  of  the  face  (73,  H.  33.  4);  the  pearl  of 

Aden  (jtXc  \&  (77,  H.  197.  10  and  651);  wine  as  a  ruby  in 
a  golden  cup  (82,  H.  204.  8  ^<\  (»L>  s^*^  JjJ  -j  LI  "O 
thou,  the  golden  cup  is  made  full  of  ruby");  the  eye-brows 


35 


like  the  crescent-moon  (82,  H.  470.  5 
"brow  like  the  new  moon  ")  ;  the  dust  on  his  love's  threshold 
(83,  H.  497.  10  \L?  \O  C)L=».);  the  sky  playing  ball  with  the 
moon  (14,  inspired  by  some  such  couplet  as  H.  409.  7)  ;  and 
the  verses  like  pearls  (43).  For  this  compare  H.  499.  n  : 


..J    v  *.iJ   OA-uocwyA.   vk>          ^v   *£>. 

"like  a  string  of  lustrous  pearls  is  thy  clear  verse,  (") 
Hafid.  "  We  might  multiply  such  parallels,  but  those  given 
bear  out  our  statement  in  regard  to  the  imitation  of  Persian 
rhetorical  figures  on  the  part  of  Platen. 

In  the  eagerness  to  be  genuinely  Persian,  the  poet  was  not 
content,  however,  with  imitating  onlv  what  was  striking  or 
beautiful;  he  introduces  even  some  features  which,  though 
very  prominent  in  Eastern  poetry,  will  never  become  con- 
genial to  the  West.  Thus  the  utter  abjectness  of  the  Oriental 
lover,  who  puts  his  face  in  the  path  of  his  beloved  and  invites 
her  (or  him)  to  scatter  dust  on  his  head  (H.  148.  3),  is  pre- 
sented to  us  with  all  possible  extravagance  in  these  lines  of  87  : 

Sieh  mich  hier  im  Staub  und  set/e  dcine  Ferse  mil  auf's  Haupt, 
Mich,  den  letzten  von  den  letzten  deiner  let/ten  Sklaven,  sieh  !  l 

To  the  sdqt  is  assigned  a  part  almost  as  prominent  as  that 
which  is  his  in  the  Persian  original.  It  was  the  introduction 
of  this  repulsive  trait  (e.  g.  82)  that  gave  to  Heine  the  oppor- 
tunitv  for  the  savage,  scathing  onslaught  on  Platen  in  the  well 
known  passage  of  the  Reiscbildcr.'* 

Otherwise  Platen,  like  Goethe,  ignores  the  mvstic  side  of 
Hfifid,  and  infuses  into  his  GJiasclcn  a  thoroughly  bacchanalian 
spirit,  taking  frequent  occasion  to  declaim  against  hypocrisy. 
fanaticism  and  the  precepts  of  the  Quran.  The  crcJo  of  these 
poems  is  the  opening  -ya^al  in  .S//V;<y/  </<"s  Hafts  (64),  where  the 
line  "  Wir  sch  \voren  ew'gen  Leichtsinn  und  ew'ge  Trunkeii- 
heit  "  mav  be  taken  to  rellect  the  sentiment  of  tin-  revelling 
Persian  poet,  who  begs  the  sftji  not  to  torbid  wine1,  since  Irom 

1  (ioethe  protested  against  this  Oriental  feature.  See  Noten  n.  AMi.  to  his  Div.in,  vol. 
iv.  p.  273  *<-•<!• 

-  Heines  Siiintlichc  Werke,  cd.  Horn  (t'ottai.  vol.  vi.  pp.  i  -,«>  seq.  (Joetlie  in  liis  roin- 
ments  on  liis  Saki  Naineh  (op.  fit.  p.  307)  emphasizes  the  purely  pe<lagoi;iral  side  «f  this 
relation  of  sfiqi  and  master. 


eternity  it  has  been  mingled  with  men's  dust  (H.  61.  4);  who 
claims  to  have  been  predestined  to  the  tavern  (H.  20.  4);  who 
asks  indulgence  if  he  turns  aside  from  the  mosque  to  the  wine- 
house  (H.  213.  4);  who  drinks  his  wine  to  the  sound  of  the 
harp,  feeling  sure  that  God  will  forgive  him  (H.  292.  5);  who 
is  above  the  reproach  of  the  boasters  of  austerity  (H.  106.  3) ; 
and  who,  finally,  asks  that  the  cup  be  placed  in  his  coffin  so 
that  he  may  drink  from  it  on  the  day  of  resurrection  (H.  308. 
8).  But  when  Platen  flings  away  the  Quran  he  certainly  is 
not  in  accord  with  his  Persian  model,  for,  while  Hafid  takes 
issue  with  the  expounders  of  the  sacred  book,  he  discreetly 
refrains  from  assailing  the  book  itself. 

But  perhaps  the  chief  significance  of  these  Ghaselen,  as  well 
as  those  of  Rtickert,  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  introduced  a 
new  poetic  form  into  German  literature.  It  is  astonishing  to 
see  how  completely  Platen  has  mastered  this  difficult  form. 
The  radlf  or  refrain,  so  familiar  to  readers  of  Hafid,  he  repro- 
duces with  complete  success,  as  may  be  seen,  for  instance,  in 
8,  where  the  words  "  du  liebst  mich  nicht  "  are  repeated  at  the 
end  of  each  couplet,  preceded  successively  by  zerrissen,  wissen, 
beflissen,  gewisscn,  vermtssen,  Narzissen,  exactly  in  the  style  of 
such  an  ode  as  H.  100.  In  those  odes  called  Spiegel  des  Hafis 
the  .name  Hafis  is  even  regularly  introduced  into  the  last 
couplet,  in  accordance  with  the  invariable  rule  of  the  Persian 
yazal  that  the  author's  name  must  appear  in  the  final  couplet. 

Besides  the  yazal  Platen  has  also  attempted  the  ruba^l  or 
quatrain,  in  which  form  he  wrote  twelve  poems  (Werke,  ii. 
pp.  62—64),  and  the  qasidah.  Of  this  there  is  only  one  speci- 
men, a  panegyric  (for  such  in  most  cases  is  the  Persian  qasidah') 
on  Napoleon,  and,  as  may  therefore  be  imagined,  of  purely 
Occidental  content.1 

Of  Platen's  translations  from  Hafid  we  need  not  speak  here. 
But  we  must  call  attention  to  the  attempt  which  he  made  to 
translate  from  Nidfimi's  Iskandar  Namah  in  the  original  muta- 
f/«/7#-metre.  The  first  eight  couplets  of  the  invocation  are 
thus  rendered,  and  in  spite  of  the  great  difficulty  attending 
the  use  of  this  metre  in  a  European  language,  the  rendering 
must  be  pronounced  fairly  successful.  It  is  also  faithful,  as 
a  comparison  with  the  original  shows.  We  cite  the  first  two 
couplets  from  the  Persian: 

1  Kassicle,  dated  February  3,  1823,  ii.  p.  60. 


37 


"  O  God,  world-sovereignty  is  Thine  !  From  us  comes  service,  Godhead 
is  Thine.  The  Protection  of  high  and  low  Thou  art  !  Everything  is  non- 
existent; whatever  is,  Thou  art."1 

Of  other  Oriental  poems,  not  translations,  we  notice  "  Par- 
senlied,  "  dating  from  the  year  1819,  when  Goethe's  Divan 
appeared,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  Parsi  Nameh  of  that 
work  suggested  to  Platen  the  composition  of  his  poem.2  His 
best  known  ballad,  "Harmosan,"  written  in  1830,  has  a 
Persian  warrior  for  its  hero.  The  source  for  the  poem  is 
probably  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  (chap. 


1  Lith.  ed.,  Shlraz,  A.H.  1312. 

5  The  Divan  appeared  August,  i8ig.     Platen's  poem  is  dated  Oct.  28,  1819. 

3  See  Studien  zu  Platen's  Balladen,  Herni.  Stockhausen,  Bed.  (1898),  pp.  50,  51,  53,  54. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
RfJCKERT. 

His  ORIENTAL  STUDIES — INTRODUCES  THE  GHASELE — OSTLICHE 
ROSEN;    IMITATIONS   OF    HAFID —  ERBAULICHES    UND   BE- 

SCHAUL1CHES MORGENLANDISCHE  SAGEN  UND  GESCHICH- 

TEN — BRAHMANISCHE    ERZAHLUNGEN — DIE  WEISHEIT   DES 
BRAHMANEN — OTHER  ORIENTAL  POEMS. 

When  speaking  of  the  introduction  of  the  yazaMorm  into 
German  literature  mention  was  made  of  the  name  of  the  man 
who  is  unquestionably  the  central  figure  in  the  great  Oriental 
movement  which  is  occupying  our  attention.  Combining  the 
genius  of  the  poet  with  the  learning  of  the  scholar,  Ruckert 
was  preeminently  fitted  to  be  the  literary  mediator  between 
the  East  and  the  West.  And  his  East  was  not  restricted,  as 
Goethe's  or  Platen's,  to  Arabia  and  Persia,  but  included  India 
and  even  China.  He  is  not  only  a  devotee  to  the  mystic 
poetry  of  Rum!  and  the  joyous  strain  of  Hafid,  but  he  is  above 
all  the  German  Brahman,  who  by  masterly  translations  and 
imitations  made  the  treasures  of  Sanskrit  poetry  a  part  of  the 
literary  wealth  of  his  own  country.  To  his  productivity  as 
poet  and  translator  the  long  list  of  his  works  bears  conclusive 
testimony.  In  this  investigation,  however,  we  shall  confine 
ourselves  to  those  of  his  original  poems  which  are  Oriental  in 
origin  or  subject-matter.  A  discussion  of  the  numerous 
translations  cannot  be  undertaken  in  the  limited  space  at  our 
disposal. 

Like  Goethe  and  Platen,  Ruckert  also  owed  to  Hammer  the 
impulse  to  Oriental  study.  His  meeting  with  the  famous 
Orientalist  at  Vienna,  in  1818,'  decided  his  future  career.  He 
at  once  took  up  the  study  of  Arabic,  Persian  and  Sanskrit, 
and  with  such  success  that  in  a  few  years  he  became  one  of 
the  foremost  Orientalists  in  Europe. 

The  first  fruit  of  these  studies  were  the  Gaselcn  which 
appeared  in  the  Taschenbiich  fiir  Dainen,  1821,  the  first  poems 

1  See  Beyer,  Friedrich  Ruckert,  Kkft.  a.  M.  1868,  pp.  101,  102. 

38 


39 

of  this  form  in  German  literature.1  They  have  been  generally 
regarded  as  translations  from  the  dlrdn  of  Rumi,  but  this  is  true 
of  only  a  limited  number  ;  and  even  these  were  probably  not 
taken  directly  from  the  Persian,  but  from  the  versions  given 
by  Hammer  in  his  Rcdekiinste.*  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only 
twenty-eight — less  than  one-half  of  the  Gaselen, — can  be  iden- 
tified with  originals  in  Hammer's  book,  and  a  comparison  of 
these  with  their  models  shows  with  what  freedom  the  latter 
were  handled.3  Furthermore  in  the  opening  poem,  (a  version 
of  Red.  p.  187,  "So  lang  die  Sonne  ")  the  last  couplet  : 

Dschelalcddin  nennt  sich  das  Licht  im  Ost, 
Dess  Wiedcrschein  euch  zeiget  mein  Gedicht, 

is  original  with  Riickert,  and  clearly  shows  that  lie  himself 
did  not  pretend  to  offer  real  translations.  The  majority  of 
poems  are  simply  original  yaza/s  in  Rfimi's  manner. 

Dschelaleddin,  im  Osten  warst  du  der  Salbenhandler. 
Ich  habe  nun  die  Bude  im  Westen  aufgeschlagen.4 

These  lines,  we  believe,  define  very  well  the  attitude  which 
the  poet  of  the  West  assumed  toward  his  mystic  brother  in 
the  East. 

The  series  of  Ghasclcn  signed  Freiinund  and  dated  1822 
(third  series  in  our  edition)  are  not  characteristically  Persian. 
Hence  we  proceed  at  once  to  a  consideration  of  the  fourth 
series  (p.  253  seq.),  which  we  shall  discuss  together  with  the 
poems  collected  under  the  title  of  Ostliche  Rosen  (p.  289  seq.) 
from  which  they  differ  in  nothing  but  the  form.  They  were, 
besides,  a  part  of  the  Ostliche  Rosen  as  published  originally  at 
Leip/ig,  1822. 

These  poems  are  tree  reproductions  or  variations  of  1  ialixian 
themes  and  motives.  The  spirit  of  revelry  and  intoxication 
finds  here  a  much  wilder  and  more  bacchanalian  expression 
than  in  the  Divan  of  Goethe  or  the  Ghasclcn  of  Platen.  ('<ir/>c 
diem  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  philosophy  of  such  poems 

1  Vol.  v.  pp.  200-237. 

1  So  Hammer  himself  thought  at  the  time.  See  Rob.  Boxberger,  Riickert-Studien.  (lot ha. 
1878,11.224.  Such  also  was  the  opinion  of  the  scholarly  von  Schack,  Strophen  des  Omar 
Chijam,  Stuttp;.  1878,  Nachwort,  p.  117,  note.  A  ropy  of  the  original  di-;in  of  Rfiinl  has 
not  been  accessible  to  me. 

1  Of.  for  instance  No.  8.  in  ii.  with  Red.  p.  175,  and  No.  24  in  ii.  p.  235.  with  Red.  p.  188. 

4  Vol.  v.  ii.  25,  p.  236. 


40 

as  "Einladung"  (p.  287)  and  "  Lebensgniige  "  (p.  293);  their 
note  is  in  thorough  accord  with  Hiifid,  when  he  exclaims  (H. 


_xi 


"to  me,  who  worship  the  beloved,  do  not  mention  anything 
else;  for  except  for  her  and  my  cup  of  wine,  I  care  for  none." 
We  are  admonished  to  leave  alone  idle  talk  on  how  and 
why  ("  Im  Friihlingsthau,"  p.  261),  for  as  Hafid  says  (H.  487. 
n):  "  Our  existence  is  an  enigma,  whereof  the  investigation 
is  fraud  and  fable.  "  The  tavern  is  celebrated  with  as  much 
enthusiasm  (e.  g.  "Das  Weinhaus,"  p.  290)  as  the  yyUt*^.  to 
which  Hafid  was  destined  by  God  (H.  492.  i).  Monks  and 
preachers  are  scored  mercilessly  (e.  g.  "  Der  Bussprediger,  "  p. 
255;  "Dem  Prediger,"  p.  295)  as  in  H.  430.  7: 


vA. 

'«  ^•"•r 


"The  admonisher  spoke  tauntingly:  Wine  is  forbidden,  do  not  drink! 
I  said:  On  my  eye  (be  it);  I  do  not  lend  my  ear  to  e\rery  ass." 

The  characteristic  Persian  images  and  rhetorical  figures, 
familiar  to  us  from  Platen,  are  also  found  here  in  still  greater 
variety  and  number.  Thus  to  mention  some  new  ones,  the 
soul  is  likened  to  a  bird  (p.  270,  No.  29,  cf.  H.  427.  5: 
1*^5)  £7"*)  '  ^e  c>rPress  i§  invoked  to  come  to  the  brook  (p. 
336,  cf.  H.  108.  3:  o^*>y=*  ^J  -J  *LjLo  K  (C-S-**'  ^r*  K^*'the 
place  of  the  straight  cypress  is  on  the  bank  of  the  brook  ")  ; 
the  rose-bush  glows  with  the  fire  of  Moses  ("  Gnosis,  "  p.  350, 

cf.  H.  517.  2:  JJ'jj^J  (S"?0  U*^'  "the  rose  displays  the  fire 
of  Musa");  Hafis  is  an  idol-worshipper  (p.  305,  "  Liebesan- 
dacht,"  cf.  H.  439.  6,  where  ^3*6*2*  ^-}*>xi  oo  ''the  idol  of 
sweet  motions"  is  addressed).  We  meet  also  the  striking 
Oriental  conception  of  the  dust  of  the  dead  being  converted 
into  cups  and  pitchers.  In  "Von  irdischer  Herrlichkeit  " 
(p.  257)  the  character  "  cler  alte  Wirth  "  is  the/?/-  of  H.  4.  10 


41 

et  passim,  and  when  speaking  of  the  fate  of  Jamsid,  Sulalman 
and  Ka'us  Kai,  he  says: 

Von  des  Gltickrads  hochstem  Gipfel  warf  der  Tod  in  Staub  sic, 
Und  ein  Tdpfer  nahm  den  Staub  in  Dienst  des  Topferrades. 
Diesen  Becher  formt'  er  draus,  und  gltiht'  ihn  aus  im  Feuer. 
Nimm!  aus  edlen  Schadeln  trink  und  deiner  Lust  nicht  schad'  es! 

This  very  striking  thought,  as  is  well   known,  is  extremely 
common  in  Persian  poetry.      To  cite  from  Hafid  (H.  459.  4)  : 


f+t     -  * 

"The  day  when  the  wheel  (of  fate)  from  our  dust  will  make  jugs,  take 
care!  make  our  skull  (lit.  the  cup  of  the  head)  full  of  wine."1 

Some  of  the  poems  are  versions,  more  or  less  free,  of 
Hafid  —  passages,  e.  g.  "Die  verloren  gegangene  Scheme  " 
(p.  290,  H.  268),  "An  die  Scho'ne"  (p.  308,  H.  160,  couplets 
2  and  5  being  omitted),  "  Beschwichtigter  Zweifel  "  (p.  310, 
H.  430.  6),  "  Das  harte  Wort  "  (p.  350,  H.  77.  i  and  2).  Some- 
times a  theme  is  taken  from  IJafid  and  then  expanded,  as  in 
"Die  Busse  "  (p.  346),  where  the  first  verse  is  a  version  of  H. 
384.  i,  the  rest  being  original. 

Of  course,  reminiscences  of  IJafid  are  bound  to  be  frequent. 
We  shall  point  out  only  a  few  instances.  "Nicht  solltest  du 
so,  O  Rose,  versaumen  die  Nachtigall  "  ("Stimme  dor  Selm- 
sucht,"  p.  256)  is  inspired  by  a  verse  like  H.  292.  2: 


"  O  rose,  in  thanks  for  that  thou  art  the  queen  <>f  beauty, 
display  no  arrogance  towards  nightingales  inailly  in  love." 

In   "  Zum  neuen  Jahr"  (j>.   200)  the  last  lines  : 

Trag  der  Schcinheit  Koran  ini  otlenen  Angesicht, 
I'liil  ilim  ilient-  das  Lied  llatist-s  /inn  Konimentar 

are  a  parallel  to  IJ.    10.  6: 

1  Cf.  HtVficI,  Sfi()I  N'aniah,  couplets  77,  78  for  the  three  names  mentioned  above  Tin- 
tigure  is  most  familiar  to  the  Knplish  reader  from  l-'it/.gi-rald's  version,  Kubaivat  of  (  >m.u 
Khayyam,  Boston,  1890,]).  211,  xxxvii.  See  also'  I'mar  XavyAin  cd.  Whintield.  I.i>ndon, 
188.?,  No.  466. 


c    -J 
Lo    -x**AJ'  v 

"Thy  beautiful  face  by  its  grace  explained  to  us  a  verse  of  the  Quran 
for  that  reason  there  is  nothing  in  our  commentary  but  grace  and  beauty." 

The  opening  lines  of  "  Schmuck  der  Welt  "  (p.  260)  : 

Nicht  bedarf  der  Schmink'  ein  schones  Angesicht. 
So  bedarf  die  Liebste  meiner  Liebe  nicht 

are  distinctly  reminiscent  of  H.  8.  4: 

OAwwwAxiAAwwo  \Lj  Jl  »^  Lo 
Is  Lox 


"  Of  our  imperfect  love  the  beauty  of  the  beloved  is  independent. 
What  need  has  a  lovely  face  of  lustre  and  dye  and  mole  and  line  ?  " 

Like  Hafid  (H.  358.  u  ;  518.  7  et  passim)  Riickert  also  boasts 
of  his  supremacy  as  a  singer  of  love  and  wine  ("  Vom  Lichte 
des  Weines,"  p.  273).  Finally  in  "Frag  and  Antwort  "  (p. 
258)  he  employs  the  form  of  the  dialogue,  the  lines  beginning 
alternately  Ich  sprach,  Sie  sprach,  just  as  Hafid  does  in  Ode  136 
or  194.  The  "  Vierzeilen  "  (p.  361),  while  they  have  the 
r»#£'f-rhyme,  are  not  versions.  Only  a  few  of  them  have  an 
Oriental  character.  Completely  unoriental  are  the  "  Brief  e 
des  Brahmanen  "  (p.  359),  dealing  with  literary  matters  of  con- 
temporary interest.1 

The  Oriental  studies  which  Riickert  continued  to  pursue 
with  unabated  ardor  were  to  him  a  fruitful  source  of  poetic 
inspiration.  They  furnished  the  material  for  the  great  mass 
of  narrative,  descriptive  and  didactic  poems  which  were  col- 
lected under  the  titles  Erbauliches  und  Beschaulichcs  aus  dem 
Morgenlande,  and  again  Morgenldndische  Sageti  nnd  Gcschichten, 
furthermore  Brahmanische  Erzdhlungcn,  and  lastly  Weisheit  des 
Brahmanen.  We  shall  discuss  these  collections  in  the  order 
here  given. 

The  first  collection  Erbauliches  und  Beschauliches  (vol.  vi.) 
consists  of  poems  which  were  published  between  the  years 

1  They  were  published  in  Deutscher  Musenalmanach,  1838,  and  do  not  belong  properly 
to  the  collection  here  discussed. 


43 

1822  and  1837  in  different  periodicals.  They  appeared  in 
collected  form  as  a  separate  work  in  1837.'  The  material  is 
drawn  from  Arabic  and  Persian  sources,  only  one  poem. 
"Die  Schlange  im  Korbe,"  p.  80,  being  from  the  Sanskrit  of 
Bhartrhari  (Nitit.  85)." 

With  the  Arabic  sources,  the  Quran,  the  chrestomathies  of 
de  Sacy  and  Kosegarten,  and  others,  we  are  not  here  con- 
cerned. Among  the  Persian  sources  the  one  most  frequently 
used  is  the  Gulistdn,  from  which  are  taken,  to  give  but  a  few 
instances,  "  Sadi  an  den  Fiirstendiener, "  p.  57  (Gul.  \.  distich 
3),  "Mitgefiihl,"  p.  52  (Gul.  i.  10,  MaOnavt),  "  Kein  Mensch 
xu  Haus,"  p.  52  (Gii/.  vii.  19,  dist.  6,  Platts,  p.  139), 
"  Gewahrter  Anstand,"  p.  55  (Gul.  iv.  MaB.  5,  Platts,  p.  96), 
as  well  as  many  of  the  proverbs  and  maxims,  pp.  102-108. 
The  poem  "Die  Kerxe  und  die  Flasche,"  p.  82,  is  a  result  of 
the  poet's  studies  in  connection  with  his  translation  of  the 
Haft  Qnlzi/m,  a  fragment  of  Amir  Sahl*  being  combined  with 
a  passage  cited  from  Asadi.4  "  Eine  Kriegsregel  aus  Mirch- 
ond,"  p.  73,  is  a  paraphrase  of  a  maBnav'i  from  Mir^vand's 
Kaiidat-ussafa.6  In  "  Gottesdienst,"  p.  52,  the  first  two  lines 
are  from  Amir  Xusrau  (Red.  p.  229);  the  remaining  lines 
were  added  by  Rtickert.  The  fables  given  on  pp.  87-96  as 
from  Jfiml  are  taken  from  the  eighth  chapter  or  "garden  "  ot 
that  poet's  Jiaharistan  :  thev  keep  rather  closelv  to  the  origi- 
nals, only  in  "Die  Rettung  des  Fuchses  "  the  excessive  natu- 
ralism of  the  Persian  is  toned  down."  One  of  these  fables, 
however,  "  Falke  uiul  Nachtigall,"  p.  89,  is  not  from  Jfimi. 
but  from  the  Jlfa\sa/i-if/-as/'d/' (}f  Nitlfmu  (\La  U  J^yo  oolX»&. 
ed.  Nathan.  Bland.  London.  1844,  p.  114;  translated  by  Ham- 
mer in  AW.  p.  107 ). 

Some  of  the  poems  in  this  collection  are  actual  translations 
from  Persian  literature.  Thus  "  Kin  Spruch  des  llafis."  p. 

1  See  essay  on  this  by  Robert  Moxberfjer  in  Rlickert-Sttiflien,  pp.  210- .'78.  Also  Bever, 
N'eue  Mittlicil.  vol.  i.  ]>.  :;i  \  ;  vol.  ii.  pp.  .•<>!  -204  for  the  date  of  many  of  these  poems. 

-  Also  a  few  of  the  Vier/.eilen-Spriiche,  pp.  102-1. .S,  e.  g.  No.  ;<>        Nltis.   ;i. 

:l  Kriedr.  Rlickert,  (Jiainiiiatik.  I'oetik  u.  Rlietonk  iler  1'erser,  ed.  \\".  lYrtsi  h,  ( iotha. 
1874,  p.  187. 

4  Ibid.  p.  _/«. 

•'  l-'t.  Wilki-n,  Hist,  (iasnevid.  Herol.  iS;j,  p.  i  (,  Latin  p.  148. 

"Cf.  transl.  of  Haharistfui  lor  Kama  Shastra  Society,  Henare^,  iSS7,  p.  iS,..  The  Persian 
text  of  these  fables  appeared  in  18.15  in  the  thrcstomathy  appended  to  !•  r.  \\ilkens  In;-ti- 
tutiones  ad  l-'undainenta  Linguae  1'ersicae,  I.ipsiae,  180;,  pi>.  i;j  iSi. 


44 

59,  is  a  fine  rendering  of  qiCah  583  in  the  form  of  the  original.* 
Then  a  part  of  the  introduction  to  Nidami's  Iskandar  Ndmah  is 
given  on  p.  65.  The  translation  begins  at  the  fortieth 
couplet:* 


»J    jyx^wJLl    >_=>•    ^j-S    tX.J.&S         .J'    *JO  x     ii      5^2; 

"  Who  has  such  boldness  that  from  fear  of  Thee  he  open  his  mouth  save 
in  submission  to  Thee?"  • 

This  is  well  rendered: 

Wer  hat  die  Kraft,  in  deiner  Furcht  Erbebung, 
Vor  dir  zu  denken  andres  als  Ergebung? 

As  will  be  noticed,  RUckert  here  has  not  attempted  to 
reproduce  the  mutaqdrib,  as  Platen  has  done  in  his  version  of 
the  first  eight  couplets  (see  p.  36). 

Some  of  the  translations  in  this  collection  were  not  made 
directly  from  the  Persian,  but  from  the  versions  of  Hammer. 
Thus  "  Naturbetrachtung  eines  persischen  Dichters,  "  p.  62, 
is  a  free  rendering  of  Hammer's  version  of  the  invocation 
prefixed  to  Attar's  Mantiq-ut  fair  (Red.  p.  141  seq.)  and 
RUckert  breaks  off  at  the  same  point  as  Hammer.3  So  also 
the  extract  from  the  lydr-i-Danis  of  Abfi'l  Fadl  (p.  68)  is  a 
paraphrase  of  the  version  in  Red.  p.  397. 

A  number  of  poems  deal  with  legends  concerning  Rumi,  or 
with  sayings  attributed  to  him.  Thus  the  legend  which  tells 
how  the  poet,  when  a  boy,  was  transported  to  heaven  in  a 
vision,  as  told  by  Afluki  in  the  Manaqibiil'Arifin*  forms  the 
subject  of  a  poem,  p.  37.  A  saying  of  Rumi  concerning 
music  prompted  the  composition  of  the  poem,  p.  54  (on  which 
see  Boxberger,  op.  cit.  p.  241),  and  on  p.  62  the  great  mystic 
is  made  to  give  a  short  statement  of  his  peculiar  Sufistic 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis.  5  In  "  Alexanders  Vermachtnis," 

1  This  poem  was  mistranslated  by  Hammer  in  his  Divan  des  Hafis,  Tub.  1812,  vol.  ii.  p. 
553.    Bodenstedt  has  given  a  version  in  rhymed  couplets  :  Der  Sanger  von  Schiras,  Berl. 
1877,  p.  129. 

2  For  Nidaml  I  have  used  a  lithographed  edition  published  at  ShlrSz,  A.  H.  1312.    In 
Wilberforce  Clarke's  transl.  of  the  Iskandarnamah,  London,  1881,  the  couplet  in  question  is 
the  forty-third. 

3  Cf.  for  Persian  text  Garcin  de  Tassy,   Mantic   Uttair,   Paris,   1863.      Also  French 
transl.  p.  i  seq. 

4  See  Jas.  W.  Redhouse,  The  Mesnevi  of  Mevlana  (our  Lord)  Jelalu-d-dln,  Muhammed,. 
er-Ruml,  Lond.  1881,  B.  i-  p.  ig.     For  Riickert's  source  see  Boxberger,  op.  cit.  p.  224. 

8  See  H.  Ethe,  Neupers.  Litt.  in  Grdr.  iran.  Phil.  vol.  ii.  p.  289. 


45 

p.  61,  we  have  the  well-known  legend  of  how  the  dying  hero 
gives  orders  to  leave  one  of  his  hands  hanging  out  of  the 
coffin  to  show  the  world  that  of  all  his  possessions  nothing 
accompanies  him  to  the  grave.  In  Nidami's  version,  however, 
the  hand  is  not  left  empty,  but  is  filled  with  earth.1 

Finally  there  are  a  few  poems  dealing  with  Oriental  history, 
of  which  we  may  mention  "  Hormusan,"  p.  25,  the  subject 
being  the  same  as  in  Platen's  more  famous  ballad.  It  may  be 
that  both  poets  drew  from  the  same  source  (see  p.  37). 

In  the  same  year  (1837)  as  the  Erbauliches  und  Besehaulichcs 
there  appeared  the  Morgenlandische  Sagcn  und  Gcschichtcn  (vol. 
iv.)  in  seven  books  or  divisions.  In  general,  the  contents 
of  these  divisions  may  be  described  as  versified  extracts  from 
Oriental  history  of  prevailingly  legendary  or  anecdotal  char- 
acter. Their  arrangement  is  mainly  chronological.  Only 
the  fourth,  fifth  and  seventh  books  call  for  discussion  as  hav- 
ing Persian  material.  The  most  important  source  is  the- 
great  historical  work  Raiidat-ussafa,  of  MTr^vfind,  portions  of 
which  had  been  edited  and  translated  before  1837  by  scholars 
like  de  Sacy,"  Wilken,3  Vullers4  and  others.6 

Other  sources  to  be  mentioned  are  d'Herbelot's  Ribliotheijnc 
Orientale*  de  Sacv's  version  of  the  Tariy^i-Yaniini''  and  Ham- 
mer's Gcschichtc  der  schonen  Rcdekiinste  Pcrsicns. 

The  first  poem  of  the  fourth  book  goes  back  to  the  legemi- 
arv  period  of  Iran.  Its  hero  is  (iiistfisp,  the  patron  and  pro- 

I  \Vilh.  Hacher,  Ni/.funis  Lchon  u.  Werke,  Leip/..  1871,  p.  no  and  n.  4. 

-  Memoires  sur  divers  Antiquites  de  la  Perse,  et  sur  les  Mi'-dailles  des  Rois  de  la  dynas- 
tic des  Sassanides,  suivis  de  1'Histoire  de  cette  Dynastic  traduite  du   1'ersan  de  Mirkhond 
par  A.  I.  Silv.  de  Sacy,  Paris,  IJQI. 

3  Mohammed!    1'ilii   Chavendschahi   vulgo    Mirchondi   Historia   Samanidarum  Pcrs.  e<\ 
l-'rid.  Wilken,  Goettingac.  1808. 

Mohammedi  Kilii  Chondschahi  vulgo  Mircliondi  Historia  (iasncvidaruni  Persice  e<i. 
Krid.  Wilken,  Bcrol.  1832. 

Geschichte  der  Sultane  a\is  dein  Geschlechte  Hujeh  nach  Mirchond,  \Vilken  in  Hi*:, 
philos.  Abh.  der  k«l.  Akad.  d.  \Vissensch.  /.u  Merlin,  Merl.  iSj;.  iTIiis  u  ork  from  iS;5. 

4  Mirchonds  (icscliichtc   der  Seldsc  liuken,  aus  d.  Pers.  /inn  ersten  Mai  libels,  etc.,  Joli. 
AUR.  Vullers.  (iiessen,  1837. 

II  A  c»m])lcte  list  of  the  portions  of  Mir  VvAnd's  work  edited  and  published  by  Kumpean 
scholars  before   1857  mav   be   found   in  /enkcr's  Uibl.  Orient.,  Nos.  871-881.     NosS-^.?- 
and  874  have  not  been  accessible  to  inc. 

*  A  letter  given  by  Hoxberger  in  op.  c  it.  \>.  74  shous  that  Kiii  kerl  asked  for  the  l":in  "! 
this  book. 

~  Ilistoire  de  Voinineildoula  Mahmoud,  It.  par  A.  I.  Silv.  de  Sacv  in  Notii'es  ct  l"..\tt,n:s 
des  Manuscrits  de  la  Mibl.  Nat.,  tom.  iv. 


46 

lector  of  Zoroaster.  Riickert  calls  him  Kischtasp.  He  does  not 
give  the  story  directly  according  to  Firdausi  (tr.  Mohl,  iv.  224, 
278-281)  but  makes  his  hero  go  to  Turfm,  whence  he  returns 
at  the  head  of  a  hostile  army.  At  the  boundary  he  is  met, 
not  by  his  brother  Zarlr,  but  simply  by  messengers  who  offer 
him  Iran's  crown.  This  he  accepts  and  thus  becomes  king 
and  protector  of  the  realm  he  was  about  to  assail.1 

Most  of  the  other  poems  in  this  book  deal  with  legends  of 
the  Sassanian  dynasty.  Thus  "Schapurs  Ball,"  p.  114  (Mem. 
pp.  282-285);  "Die  Wolfe  und  Schakale  Nuschirwans,"  p. 
115  (MJm.  p.  381);  "Die  abgestellte  Hungersnoth,"  p.  116 
(Me"tn.  pp.  345,  346);  "Die  Heerschau,"  p  117  (MJm.  p.  373). 
The  two  stories  about  Bahrain  Cubin,  pp.  119-122,  are  also 
in  Mem.  p.  395  and  pp.  396,  397  respectively.*  "Der  Mann 
mit  einem  Arme, "  p.  124,  is  in  Mem.  pp.  348,  349.  In  the 
last  poem  "Yesdegerd,"  p.  126,  Riickert  gives  the  story  of 
the  sad  end  of  the  last  Sassanian  apparently  according  to 
different  accounts,  and  not  simply  according  to  Firdausi  or 
Mir^vand. 

The  sixth  book  opens  with  the  story  of  Muntasir,  p.  198, 
(from  d'Herb.  vol.  iii,  pp.  694,  695)  and  then  we  enter  the 
period  of  the  Saffarid  dynasty.  Its  founder  Ya'qub  is  the  sub- 
ject of  a  poem,  p.  207  (d'Herb.  iv.  459).  "Zu  streng  und  zu 
milde"  and  "  Schutz  und  Undank,"  both  p.  210,  tell  of  the 
fortunes  of  Prince  Oabus  (Wilken,  Sam.  p.  181  and  pp.  79—81, 
91,  198-200,  n.  47).  "  Die  aufgehobene  Belagerung, "  p.  211, 
brings  us  to  the  Buyids  (d'Herb.  ii.  pp.  639,  640).  The  story 
of  Saidah  and  Mahmiid,  p.  212,  is  from  Wilken's  Buj.  c.  xii. 
pp.  87-90,  but  the  order  of  the  events  is  changed.  Then  we 
come  to  the  history  of  the  Ghaznavid  dynasty,  in  connection 
with  which  the  story  of  Alp  Tagin  is  told  in  "Lokman's 
Wort,"  p.  214,  according  to  the  account  of  Haidar  in  Wilk. 
Gasnevid.  p.  139,  n.  i,  preceded  by  an  anecdote  told  of  Luq- 
man  (d'  Herb.  ii.  488).  "Die  Schafschur, "  p.  215,  gives  a 
saying  of  Sabuktagln  from  the  Tdri-^-i-  Yamltn  (on  the 
authority  of  'Utbi,  de  Sacy,  Notices  et  Extr.  iv.  365).  In  the 
story  of  Mahmud's  famous  expedition  to  Somanatha,  p.  215, 

1  For  a  similar  form  of  the  story  see  Gobmeau,  Histoire  des  Perses,  Pans,  1869,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  9,  10,  where  the  story  is  given  on  the  authority  of  a  Parsi  work,  the  "Tjehar-e-Tjemen" 
(i.  e.  Cahar-i-Caman,  "  the  four  lawns  "). 

-  For  the  romance  about  this  man  see  Th.  Noldeke,  Tabarl,  pp.  474-478. 


47 

Riickert  has  combined  the  meagre  account  of  Mlr^vand  with 
that  of  Firista  for  the  story  of  the  Brahman's  offer -and  with 
that  of  Haidar  for  the  sultan's  reply  (Wilk.  Gasnevid.  pp.  216, 
217,  n.  109).  "  Mahmud's  Winterfeldxug, "  p.  216,  is  also 
from  Wilken's  book  (pp.  166—168,  n.  38);  in  fact  Dil^ak's 
reply  is  a  rhymed  translation  of  the  passage  in  the  note 
referred  to.  From  the  same  source  came  also  the  poem  on 
the  two  Dabsalims,  p.  219  (Wilken,  Gasnerid.  pp.  220-225). 
The  familiar  anecdote  of  the  vizier  interpreting  to  Mahmfid 
the  conversation  of  the  two  owls  is  told  in  Nidami's  Mayjan- 
nl-asrdr  (ed.  Bland,  pp.  48-50),  where,  however,  Anusirvan  is 
the  sultan.  The  title  reads:  ^  -i\^  U  JcX-£  ij!^vXO»jl  ijLx*J,3 
LVjj-^  .'  "Abu  Rihan  "  (i.  e.  Alblrfml)  is  taken  from  d'llerb. 
I.  45  and  iv.  697. 

Then  follow  stories  from  the  period  of  the  Saljuks:  "Des 
Sultan's  Schlaf, "  p.  224  (Yullers,  Gcsch.  dcr  Scldsch.  pp.  43, 
44);  "  Nitham  Elmulks  Ehre, "  p.  228  (ibid.  pp.  228-230): 
"  Xitham  Elmulks  Fall,"  p.  229  (ib.  pp.  123-125  and  pp.  128- 
132);  "Die  ungluckliche  Stunde,"  p.  232  (ibid.  pp.  153. 
154).  "Die  unterthanigen  Wiirfel,"  p.  227,  is  from  the  7/a/f 
Qnlziun  (Grain,  it.  Poet,  dcr  Pcrsci\  pp.  366,  367).  The  stories  of 
Alp  Arslan  and  Romanus,  p.  225,  and  of  Malaksfih's  prayer, 
p.  228,  are  not  given  bv  MTr^vand.  but  occur  in  the  works  of 
Deguignes,  Gibbon.  Malcolm  and  d'Herbelot."  The  storv  of 
the  death  of  .Sultan  Muhammad  (in  1159  A.  D.).  p.  232,  is  in 
Deguignes,  ii.  260,  261. 

Then  we  get  stories  from  the  period  of  the  Mongol  invasion. 
"Die  prophe/eite  Welt/erstorung,  p.  237,  the  legend  <>t 
Jingis  Chan's  birth,  is  in  the  Tdri^-i-Yalnini  (Notices  ct  Extr. 
iv .  pp.  408,  409).  The  material  lor  the  poems  concerning 
Muhammad  Xvara/m  Sah,  p.  237.  and  his  brave  son  |al:ll  ud- 
dln,  pp.  240.  241,  is  found  in  the  work  of  Deguignes  (op.  cit. 
ii.  p.  274  and  pp.  280-283).  l-'inallv  we  are  carried  even  to 
India  and  listen  to  the  storv  of  the  unhappv  <|iieen  Ra/ivali. 
p.  25^,  wlio  was  mu rdered  at  I)elhi  bv  her  own  generals  in 
.239  A.I).' 

'  l.ithojrr.  ed.,  p.  2  ;.     See  als  •  Malcolm,  op.  fit.  i.  1.1'.  ;   Red.  p.  107. 

i.  des  Ihins,  des    I'urcs,  des    .Mojjols,  et  des  aiitres  Taitaies   ocvi- 
-17=18.  vol.  ii.  pp.  z.xj.  .-2;;  Malcolm,  op.  cit.  i.  pp.  211.  2iS. 
;t.  of  India,  l.ond..  iSji.  vol.  ii.  pp.  io-i2;also  Klliot,  'I'he  History 
iv  n  historians.  l.ond.  iS'  7-1877.  vol.  ii.  pp.  3  ;2-  \  55,  •; ;;.  \\  here  the 
in  Riickert 's  poem. 


dcntaux,  etc.     Paris, 

•'See  Klphinstone's  II 
of  India  as  told  bv  its 
storv  is  not  so  romantic 


48 

A  few  anecdotes  about  Persian  poets  are  also  given.  Thus 
"  Dichterkampf, "  p  233,  gives  the  amusing  story  of  the  liter- 
ary contest  between  Anvari  and  RaSId,  surnamed  Vatvat  "the 
swallow"  (Hammer,  Red.  p.  121;  David  Price,  Chronological 
Retrospect,  London,  1821,  ii.  391,  392),  and  on  p.  243  we  are 
told  how  Kama!  ud-dln  curses  his  native  city  Ispahan  and  how 
the  curse  was  fulfilled.  (Hammer,  Red.  p.  159.) 

The  seventh  book  contains  two  of  Riickert's  best  known 
parables,  the  famous  "Es  ging  ein  Mann  im  Syrerland, "  p. 
303,'  and  "  Der  Sultan  lasst  den  Mewlana  rufen,"  p.  305  (Red. 
P-  338). 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  Oriental  poems  which  we  have 
thus  far  discussed  were  mainly  derived  from  Arabic  and 
Persian  sources.  We  may  now  turn  our  attention  to  a  collec- 
tion in  which  Riickert's  studies  on  matters  connected  Avith 
India  are  also  represented. 

This  collection  Brahmanische  Erzdhlungen,  published  in  the 
year  1839  (vol.  iii.),  does  not,  however,  as  its  title  might 
lead  us  to  suppose,  consist  exclusively  of  Indie  material. 
Some  of  the  poems  are  not  even  Oriental;  "  Annikas  Freier, " 
p.  217,  for  example,  is  from  the  Finnic.  Of  others,  again, 
the  subject-matter,  whether  originally  Oriental  or  not,  has 
long  ago  become  the  common  property  of  the  world's  fable- 
literature,  as,  for  instance,  "Weisheit  aus  Vogelmund, "  p. 
239,  the  story  of  which  may  be  found  in  the  Gesta  Romanorum, 
and  in  French,  English  and  German,  as  well  as  in  Persian, 
fable-books.2  Some  are  from  Arabic  sources,  as  from  the 
Thousand  and  One  Nights,  e.  g.  "  Der  schwanke  Anker- 
grund,"  p.  357, 3  "Elephant,  Nashorn  und  Greif,"  p.  367,' 
*'  Die  Kokosniisse,"  p.  359.°  The  poem  "  Rechtsanschauung 
in  Afrika, "  p.  221,  is  a  Hebrew  parable  from  the  Talmud  and 
had  been  already  used  by  Herder." 

A  considerable  number  of  the  poems  contain  nothing  but 
Persian  material.  Thus  "  Wettkampf,"  p.  197,  is  from  the 
Gulistan  (i.  28;  K.  S.  tr.  p.  27);  and  from  the  same  source  we 

1  Taken  from  Red.  p.  183,  where  it  is  given  as  from  ROrai.    See  above,  p.  6. 

2  Gesta  Roman,  eel.  Herm.  Oesterly.  Berl.  1872,  c.  167.  For  bibliography  of  this  fable  see 
W.  A.  Clouston,  A  Group  of  Eastern  Romances,  i88q,  pp.  563-566,  pp.  448-452. 

3  Book  of  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  by  John  Payne,  Lond.  1894,  vol.  v,  p.  153. 

4  Ibid.  p.  168.         '•>  Ibid.  p.  199. 

*  In  Jlidische  Farabeln,  vol.  26,  p.  359  ;  see  also  Bacher,  Nizamis  Leben  u.  Werke,  p.  117, 
n.  4. 


49 

have  "  Rache  fiir  den  Steinwurf,"  p.  219  (Gnl.  \.  22;  K.  S. 
21),  "  Flucli  and  Segen,"  p.  234  (Gul.  i.  i),  and  "  Busurgi- 
mihr,"  p.  225  (Gul.  i.  32;  K.  S.  31).  "Die  Bibliothek  des 
Konigs, "  p.  405,  is  from  the  Baharistan  (K.  S.,  p.  31  ;  Red.  p. 
338).  Three  episodes  from  the  Iskandar  Namah  are  narrated 
on  pp.  214-217:  the  story  of  the  invention  of  the  mirror  (Isk. 
tr.  Clark,  xxiii.  p.  247),  the  battle  between  the  two  cocks 
(ibid.,  xxii.  p.  234  seq.),  and  the  message  of  Dara  to  Alexan- 
der with  the  hitter's  reply  (ibid.  xxiv.  p.  263).' 

On  p.  329  Riickert  offers  a  free,  but  faithful,  even  if 
abridged  version  of  selected  passages  from  the  introductory 
chapters  of  Nidami's  work  (/>•/•.  tr.  Clarke,  canto  ii,  p.  18  seq. 
and  canto  vii,  p.  53  seq.).  In  "  Kiess  der  Reue,"  p.  421,  he- 
paraphrases  the  episode  of  Alexander's  search  for  the  fountain 
of  life  from  the  Shah  A'ainah  (tr.  Mohl,  v.  pp.  177,  178).  The 
story  of  Bahramgur  in  the  same  work  (tr.  Mohl,  v,  pp.  488- 
492)  appears  in  "  Allwo  nicht  Zugethan,"  p.  397.  It  is  not 
taken  from  FirdausI,  for  it  relates  the  story  somewhat  differ- 
ently, and  introduces  a  love-episode  of  which  the  epic  knows 
nothing.3  Again,  "Der  in  die  Stadt  verschlagene  Kurde,"  p. 
229,  is  an  anecdote  which  Riickert  had  alreadv  translated  in 
the  Haft  Qiilzum  (see  his  Poet.  u.  RJict.  der  Perser,  pp.  72-74), 
while  "  Gliicksgiiter, "  p.  233,  mav  have  been  suggested  bv  a 
story  of  Attftr  which  he  published  afterwards  (1860,  ZDM(i. 
vol.  14,  p.  286).  Some  anecdotes  of  Persian  princes  or  poets 
are  also  utili/ed,  e.  g.  "Das  Kiichenfeldgerathe  des  Fiirsten 
Amer,"  p.  226  (d'  Herb.  iv.  459;  Malcolm  i.  p.  155),  "Der 
Spiegel  des  Konigs,"  p.  223  (Deguignes,  ii.  171),  and  the 
story  of  JamT  and  the  mullfi,  p.  224  (M.  Kuka.  77i<-  //'//  <///</' 
Humour  of  lite  J^ersians,  Bombay,  1894,  pp.  1^5.  i06).  In 
one  poem,  "()rmii/d  und  Ahriman."  p.  344.  an  Avestan 
subject  is  treated,  the  later  Pars!  doctrine  of  •;/•,-•<///  tik<ini>t<i.° 

The  great  majority  of  the  poems  in  tliis  collection  arc  con 
corned  with  India,  its  literature,  mythology,  religious  customs, 
geography  and  history,  and  it  will  be  convenient  for  oui 
purpose  to  discuss  them  tinder  these  heads. 

1  These  episodes  arc  outlined  in  Hammer,  Red.  |>.  iiS;  see  Malcolm,  op.  rit.  \.  ;;,  v 
-  We  rail  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  fouith  division  of  this  collection  .pp.   ;,.•-(;,  in 
our  edition)  is  made  up  of  poems  u  hi.  h  really  belong  to  ihe  Weislieit  des  Hiahm.men. 
•"Jackson,  Die  iran.  Religion  in  (iidr.  iian.  Phil.  ii.  pp.  <<2*>,  '•;•'• 


50 

In  the  first  group,  that  which  takes  its  material  from  Sanskrit 
literature,  we  meet  with  the  story  of  the  flood,  p.  298,  from 
the  Mahabhdrata  (Vana  Parva,  187)  and  the  story  of  Rama's 
exploits  and  Sita's  love,  p.  268,  from  the  Ramayana.  Also 
a  number  of  fables  from  the  Hitopadesa  or  Pancatantra  occur, 
e.  g.  that  of  the  greedy  jackal,  p.  249,  familiar  from  Lafontaine 
(Hit.  i.  6;  Pane.  ii.  3),  and  that  of  the  lion,  the  mouse  and  the 
cat,  p.  250  (Hit.  ii.  3).  The  story  of  the  ungrateful  man  and 
the  grateful  animals,  p.  252,  is  found  in  the  Kathasaritsagara 
(tr.  Tawney,  ii.  pp.  103—108;  cf.  Pali  version  in  Rasavahim, 
Wollheim,  Die  National- Lit.  sdmtlicher  Volker  des  Orients, 
Berl.  1873,  vol.  i.  p.  370).  "  Katerstolz  und  Fuchses  Rath," 
p.  243,  has  for  its  prototype  the  fable  of  the  mouse  changed 
into  a  girl  in  Pancatantra  (iv.  9 ;  cf.  the  story  of  the  ambitious 
Candiila  maid  in  Kathas.  tr.  Tawney,  ii.  p.  56).  King  Raghu's 
generosity  to  Varatantu's  pupil  Kautsa,  as  narrated  in  the 
jRaghuvamsa  (ch.  v.),  is  the  subject  of  a  poem  on  p.  402.  Two 
famous  pieces  from  the  /[/pam'sad-literature  are  also  offered: 
the  story  of  how  Jajfiavalkya  overcame  nine  contestants  in 
debate  at  King  Janaka's  court  and  won  the  prize  consisting  of 
one  thousand  cows  with  gold-tipped  horns,  p.  247,  from  the 
Brhadaranyaka  Up.  iii  (see  Deussen,  Sechzig  Upan.  iibers. 
Leipz.  1897,  p.  428  seq.),  and  the  story  of  Naciketas'  choice, 
p.  403,  from  the  Kathaka  Upanisad.  To  this  group  belong 
also  versions  of  Bhartrhari,  p.  337  (Nltis.  15)  and  p.  338 
(Nitis.  67). 

In  the  mythological  group  we  have  two  poems  telling  of  the 
history  of  Krsna,  as  given  in  the  great  Bhagavata  Purana. 
The  first  one,  "Die  Weltliebessonne  im  Palast  des  Gottes 
Krischna, "  p.  246,  gives  the  legend  of  the  god's  interview 
with  the  Sage  Narada  (Bhagav.  Nirnaya  Sag.  Press,  Bombay 
1898,  Lib.  x.  c.  69;  tr.  Dutt,  Calcutta,  1895,  pp.  298-302) 
with  a  close  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  Sanskrit 
original.  The  second  one  narrates  the  romance  of  the  poor 
Brahman  Sudaman,  who  pays  a  visit  to  the  god  and  is  enriched 
by  the  latter's  generosity  (Bhagav.  x.  c.  80,  81 ;  tr.  Dutt,  pp. 
346-355.  For  the  Hindostanee  version  in  the  Premsagar,i  see 
Wollheim,  op.  cit.  i.  p.  421).  In  the  Sanskrit  the  story  is  not 
so  ideal  as  in  Riickert's  poem.  The  poor  Brahman  is  urged 


51 

on  to  the  visit,  not  by  affection  for  the  playmate  of  his  youth, 
but  rather  by  the  prosaic  appeals  of  his  wife;  yet,  though  the 
motive  be  different,  the  result  is  the  same.  Besides  these,  we 
find  the  legend  of  Kama,  the  Hindu  Cupid,  burned  to  ashes 
by  Siva's  third  eye  for  attempting  to  interrupt  the  god's 
penance,  p.  266  (Itaniay.  i.  c.  23,  Knmdras.  iii.  v.  70  seq.),  and 
Riickert  manages  to  introduce  and  to  explain  all  the  epithets, 
Kainadura,  kandarpa,  smara,  maninatlia,  hrcchaya,  ananga,  which 
Sanskrit  authors  bestow  upon  their  Cupid.  We  also  have 
legends  of  the  cause  of  the  eclipses  of  sun  and  moon,  p.  365. 
of  the  origin  of  caste,  p.  347  (Mann  i.  87),  of  the  fabulous 
mountain  Meru  in  Jambudvipa,  p.  285,  of  the  quarrelsome 
mountains  Innekonda  and  Bugglekonda,  p.  321  (Ritter  Erd- 
kunde,  iv.  2,  pp.  472,  473).  The  winding  course  of  the 
Indus  is  explained  by  a  typical  Hindu  saint-story,  p.  335, 
similar  to  that  told  of  the  Vamunfi  and  Rama  in  the  I'isnu 
Purana  (tr.  Wilson,  ed.  Dutt,  Calc.  1894,  p.  386). 

Many  of  the  poems  describe  religious  customs  practised  in 
India.  Of  such  customs  the  practice  of  asceticism  in  its 
different  forms  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  could  not  fail 
to  engage  the  poet's  attention.  Thus  the  peculiar  fast  known 
as  Ctindrayana,  "moon-penance,"  is  the  subject  of  a  poem,  p. 
278;  so  also  ''Titanische  Bussandacht,"  p.  283,  has  for  its 
theme  the  belief  of  the  Hindus  in  the  supernatural  power  con- 
ferred by  excessive  penance,  as  exemplified  by  the  legend  of 
SakuntahVs  birth.  The  practice  of  f>iiiiitifiif>tis,  "the  five 
fires"  (Mann,  vi.  23.  See  Monier  Williams,  Indian  ll'isdcm, 
Loud.  1876,  p.  105)  is  the  subject  of  the  poem  "Des  Biissers 
Lauterungswahn,"  p.  285.  The  selfish  greed  of  the  Brah 
mans  (cl.  Mann,  vii.  133,  144;  xi.  40)  is  referred  to  in  two 
poems  on  p.  287.  The  supposed  powers  ol  cintCunam',  the 
Hindu  wishing-stone,  suggested  the  poem  on  p.  275  (H. 
Bhartrhari,  I'ftir.  33).  Of  oilier  poems  of  this  sort  we  mav 
mention  "I)ie  Crottverehrung  des  Stammes  Kuriun. "  p.  322 
(Ritter,  /•><//•.  iv.  i.  p.  187).  "  Vom  (ienuss  der  l-'riichte 
nach  Dschainas  Lehrc,  '  p.  307  (ibid.  iv.  p.  749).  and  "Hie 
Scjiuhe  im  Tempel  Madliuras. "  p.  301  (ibid.  iv.  2.  p.  4). 

Again,    manv    poems   belong   to   the   realm    of    phvsical    and 
descriptive    geography.        Their    source,    in     most    cases,    was 


52 

undoubtedly  the  great  geographical  work  of  Ritter.  To  it 
may  be  referred  the  majority  of  the  purely  descriptive  poems, 
e.  g.,  "Das  ewige  Friihlingsland  der  Tudas,"  p.  301  (op.  cit. 
iv.  i.  951),  "Das  Friihlingsland  Kaschmir,"  p.  315  (ibid.  ii. 
1142  and  630),  "Die  Kokospalme, "  p.  304  (ibid.  iv.  i.  834 
seq. ,  838,  851,  852).  The  sun  and  moon  lotuses,  so  famous 
through  Heine's  beautiful  songs  (see  p.  58),  are  described  on 
P-  343-  Animal-life  also  comes  in  for  its  share,  e.  g.  the 
ichneumon  in  "  Instinctive  Heilkunde  der  Tiere,"  p.  336. 

Lastly,  we  come  to  the  historical  group,  poems  relating  to 
the  history  of  India.  The  poem  on  the  burning  of  Keteus' 
wife,  p.  382,  is  evidently  inspired  by  the  reading  of  Diodorus 
Siculus  (xix.  33).  On  page  311  \ve  have  a  poem  celebrating 
the  valor  of  the  Raja  Pratap  Sinh,  who  held  out  so  bravely 
against  Akbar  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  Citor,  1567.' 
The  heroic  queen-regent  of  Ahmadnagar,  Chand  Blbi,  and 
the  romantic  story  of  her  struggle  against  Akbar,  in  1596,  is 
the  subject  of  the  poem  on  p.  353.  Only  the  bright  side  is, 
however,  presented  ;  the  tragic  fate  which  overtook  the 
unfortunate  princess  three  years  later  is  not  referred  to.8  The 
famous  battle  of  Samugarh,  1658,  by  which  Aurangzib  gained 
the  Mogul  Empire,  is  narrated  on  p.  310,  according  to  the 
account  of  Bernier."  In  this  connection  we  may  also  mention 
"Das  Mikroskop,"  p.  370,  the  familiar  anecdote  of  the 
Brahman  who  refused  to  drink  water,  after  the  microscope 
had  revealed  to  him  the  existence  therein  of  countless  animal- 
cules (Ritter,  Erdk.  iv.  i.  p.  749). 

Besides  the  poems  falling  under  the  groups  discussed  above 
there  are  many  of  purely  didactic  or  moralizing  tendency, 
embodying  general  reflections.  It  would  take  us  too  far, 
were  we  to  attempt  to  discuss  them,  even  if  their  interest  were 
sufficiently  great  to  repay  the  trouble.  We  must,  however, 
point  out  that  even  the  Sanskrit  vocabulary  is  impressed  into 
service  to  furnish  material  for  such  poems.  Thus  the  fact 

1  Elliot,  Hist,  of  India,  vol.  v.  pp.  160-175;  324-328. 

2  Elphinstone,  Hist,  of  India,  vol.  ii.  pp.  229-301  and   note,  where  the  legend  of  the 
queen  firing  silver  balls  is  given  on  the  authority  of  Xiifl  XAn.     Elliot,  op.  cit.  vi.  QQ-IOI. 

3  The  History  of  the  I-ate  Revolution  of  the  Empire  of  the  Great  Mogul,  Lond.  1671,  pp. 
106-131.     See  also  Elliot,  op.  cit.  vol.  vii.  pp.  220-224,  and  Elphinstone,  op.  cit.  vol.  ii.  p.  425 
seq.,  where  a  slightly  different  account  of  the  battle  is  given. 


53 

that  the  word  pada  may  mean  either  "foot,"  "step,"  or  "ray 
of  the  moon  or  sun,"  is  utilized  for  the  last  lines  of  "  Vom 
Monde,"  p.  368.  The  meaning  of  the  term  bakrarratin, 
"acting  like  a  crane, "  applied  to  a  hypocrite,  is  used  fora 
poem  on  p.  363.  Similarly  the  threefold  signification  of 
dripa  as  "brahman,"  "bird, "and  "tooth"  suggests  "  Zweige- 
boren,"  p.  423,  and  more  instances  might  be  adduced.  It  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such  poetizing  should  often 
degenerate  into  the  most  inane  trifling,  so  that  we  get  such 
rhyming  efforts  as  that  on  p.  326  with  its  pun  on  the  simi- 
larity of  hima  "winter"  with  hlma  "gold,"  Himalava  and 
hi  mar  at  with  Himmel  and  Heimat,  or  that  on  p.  385  with  its 
childish  juxtaposition  of  the  Vedantic  term  tnCivii.  the  Greek 
name  Mala,  and  the  German  word  Magic. 

If  the  poems  discussed  in  the  preceding  pages  were  found 
to  be  largely  didactic  and  gnomic  in  character,  the  great 
collection  called  Die  ll'eisheit  Jes  Brahmanen  is  entirely  so. 
The  poems  composing  this  bulky  work  appeared  in  install- 
ments during  the  period  1836-1839,  and,  while  many  of  them, 
as  will  be  shown  below,  are  the  outcome  of  Ruckert's  Oriental 
studies,  the  majority  simply  embodv  general  reflections  on 
anything  and  everything  that  happened  to  engage  the  poet's 
attention.  "  Es  muss  alles  hinein,  was  ich  eben  lese:  vor 
acht  Wochen  Spinoza,  vor  vierzehn  Tagen  Astronomic,  jetzt 
Grimms  iiberschwenglich  gehaltreiche  Deutsche  Mythologie. 
alles  unter  der  nachlassig  vorgehaltenen  Brahmanenmaske 

"'      These  are  the  author's  own  words  and  render 

further  detailed  characterization  of  the  work  superfluous.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  sources  for  the  great  didactic  collec- 
tion, even  for  that  part  of  it  which  is  not  composed  ot  reflec- 
tions on  matters  of  contemporary  history,  politics  and  litera- 
ture, or  relating  to  questions  ot  tamily  and  triendship,  are 
more  Occidental  than  Oriental.'"'  In  fact,  the  Hrahmanic 
character  of  the  wisdom  here  expounded  consists  mainly  in 
the  contemplative  spirit  ol  reposeful  didacticism  which  per- 
vades thi'  entire  collection.  Nor  is  there  anything  Oriental 

1  Letter  to  Melrhior  Mevt,   Dei.  25,  i.\v,  rite.l   bv  C.  Hever  in   Nai-hjjelassene  (Je.l.  !• i 
Riu-kerts,  Wien,  1877,  pp.  210,  211. 
5  Koch,  Der  Deutsche  Brahmane,  Mreslau  (  Deiitvlie  Hik-herei,  Serie  iv.  Heft  i^\  p.  11. 

5 


54 

about  the  form  of  the  poems, — the  rhymed  Alexandrine  reign- 
ing supreme  with  wearisome  monotony. 

A  detailed  discussion  of  the  Weisheit,  therefore,  even  if  it 
were  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  dissertation,  will  not 
be  attempted;  the  less  so,  as  such  a  discussion,  so  far  as  the 
Oriental  side,  at  least,  is  concerned,  wrould  be  very  much  of 
the  same  nature  as  that  given  of  the  Brahmanische  Erzdhlungen. 
A  general  Oriental  influence,  especially  of  the  Bhagavadgitd- 
philosophy  or  of  Ruml's  pantheism,  is  noticeable  enough  in 
many  places,1  but  particular  instances  of  such  influence  are 
not  hard  to  find.  We  shall  adduce  only  a  few,  taken  from 
the  fifth  division  or  Stufe,  called  Leben.  Of  these  there  are 
taken  from  the  Hitopade&a  Nos.  25  (Hit.  i.  couplet  179;  tr. 
Hertel,  141),  26  (ib.  i.  lySjtr.  Hertel,  140),  in  (ib.  i.  couplet  80; 
Wilkins'  tr.  p.  56).  From  the  Gulistan  are  taken  Nos.  290  (Gul. 
i.  13;  K.  S.  dist.  p.  42),  326  (ibid.  vii.  20;  K.  S.  dist.  p.  230),  366 
(ibid.  vii.  20;  K.  S.  p.  232).  No.  60  was  probably  suggested  by 
the  fable  of  the  ass  and  the  camel  in  Jami's  Baharistan  (tr. 
K.  S.  p.  179).  No.  476  draws  a  moral  from  the  fact  that  the 
Persian  title  mirza  means  either  "scribe "  or  "prince,"  accord- 
ing to  its  position  before  or  behind  the  person's  name.  In 
No.  201  we  recognize  a  Persian  proverb:  ^  \%j  *£  *++*  ^i)*J 

^.j&uyo  xsXJj_>  <Xst  "  little  goat,  do  not  die;  spring  is  com- 
ing, you/ will  eat  clover."  No.  364: 

"Herr  Strauss,  wenn  ein  Kameel  du  bist,  so  trage  mir!" 
Ich  bin  ein  Vogel.     "  Flieg!"     Ich  bin  ein  Trampeltier 

is  also  a  Persian  proverb  and  is  absolutely  unintelligible, 
unless  one  happens  to  know  that  the  Persian  word  for 
"ostrich"  is  cy>o»JC.ti,  literally  "camel-bird." 

Again,  to  cite  from  other  Stufen,  Firdausi's  lines,  already  used 
by  Goethe  in  his  Divan  (see  p.  25  above),  furnish  the  text  for 
a  moral  poem,  p.  487  (18).  The  Persian  notion  of  the  pea- 
cock being  ashamed  of  his  ugly  feet  (cf.  Gul.  ii.  8,  qit'ah}  is 
put  to  a  similar  use  on  p.  463  (162).  Some  poems  are  moral- 
ixingly  descriptive  of  Indie  customs,  e.  g. ,  p.  157  (n),  where 
reverence  for  the  guru  or  "teacher "is  inculcated  (cf.  Manu 

1  Ibid.  pp.  18-22.  For  RQml's  influence  see  esp.  in  vol.  viii  of  the  edition  cited,  pp.  544. 
7,  566.  74  et  al. 


55 

ii,  71,  228)  and  pp.  10,  n  (18,  19),  where  the  conditions  ;ire 
set  forth  under  which  the  Vedas  may  be  read  (cf.  Manu  iv. 
101-126,  or  Yajn.  i.  142-151).  A  comparison  is  instituted 
bet\\reen  the  famous  court  of  Vikramaditya  and  his  seven 
gems,  of  which  Kfilidasa  was  one,  and  that  of  Karl  August  of 
Weimar  and  his  poetic  circle,  p.  148  (39). 

Trivial  and  empty  rhyming  is  of  course  abundant  in  such 
an  uncritical  mass  of  verse,  and  we  also  meet  with  insipid 
puns,  like  that  on  the  Arabic  word  <//>/,  "  religion,"  and  the 
German  word  dienen,  p.  498  (48). 

These  examples,  we  believe,  will  suffice  for  our  purpose. 
With  the  philosophical  part  of  the  \Vcishcit  we  are  not  here 
concerned. 

A  great  many  Oriental  poems  are  scattered  throughout  the 
collection  which  bears  the  title  of  Pantheon  (vol.  vii.).  We 
may  mention  ''Die  gefallenen  Engel,"  p  286,  the  legend  of 
Hfirut  and  Marut,  "  Wischnu  auf  der  Schlange,"  p.  286,  "Die 
nackten  Weisen,"  p.  287,  and  others.  Some  poems  in  this 
collection  are  in  spirit  akin  to  the  Qstliche  Rosen,  e.  g.  "  Becher 
und  Wein,"  p.  291,  "Der  Traum,"  p.  283,  and  the  "  Vier- 
xeilen,"  pp.  481,  482.  Besides  this,  the  y<jctf/-form  occurs 
repeatedly,  e.  g.  "  Friihlingshymne, "  p.  273.  So  fond  does 
Riickert  seem  to  have  been  of  this  form,  that  he  empiovs  it 
even  for  a  poem  on  such  an  unoriental  subject  as  Faster, 
p.  189  (2). 

This  collection  is  furthermore  of  interest  from  the  biographi- 
cal side,  as  often  giving  us  Riickert's  opinions.  Thus  we 
find  evidence  that  he  was  bv  no  means  onesidedly  prejudiced 
in  favor  of  tilings  Oriental.  Referring  to  the  mvth  of  liftv- 
three  million  Apsarases  having  sprung  from  the  sea,1  he  states 
(p.  24),  that  if  he  were  to  be  the  judge,  these  fifty-three  mil- 
lion nymphs  bedecked  with  jewels  would  have  to  bow  before 
the  one  Aphrodite  in  her  naked  glorv.  And  again  in 
"  Riickkehr,"  p.  51,  the  poet  confesses  that  having  wandered 
to  the  East  to  forget  his  misery  and  finding  thorns  in  the  rose- 
gardens  of  Persia,  and  demons,  misshapen  gods  and  monkeys 
acting  the  parts  of  heroes  in  India,  he  is  glad  to  return  to  the 

1  In  Rfimfiy.  i.  45,  where  the  story  of  their  origin  is  briefly  given,  we  read  tin!  si.xtv 
kdtis,  i.  c.  6oo,'xxvx>o  (a  X-<~>//  being  io,<»«.>,'>->0,  came  forth  from  (lie  sea,  not  reckoning  their 
numberless  female  attendants. 


56 

Iliad    and    Odyssey    (cf.    also    "Zu    den    ostlichen    Rosen," 

P-  '53)- 

Riickert  was  evidently  aware  of  his  tendency  to  overpro- 
duction. He  offers  an  explanation  in  "  Spruchartiges," 
P-  i57: 

Mir  ist  Verse  zu  machen  und  ktinstliche  Vers'  ein  Bedlirfnis, 
Fehlt  mir  ein  eigenes  Lied,  so  Ubersetz'  ich  mir  eins. 

And  again  to  his  own  question,  Musst  du  denn  immer  dich- 
ten?,  p  159,  he  answers: 

Ich  denke  nie  ohne  zu  dichten, 
Und  dichte  nie  ohne  zu  denken. 

Graf  von  Schack  has  aptly  applied  to  Riickert's  poems  the 
famous  sentence  which  a  Spaniard  pronounced  about  Lope  de 
Vega,  that  no  poet  wrote  so  many  good  plays,  but  none  also 
so  many  poor  ones.1 

Whatever  defects  it  may  have,  Riickert's  Oriental  work  is 
nevertheless  indisputably  of  the  greatest  importance  to  Ger- 
man literature.  More  than  any  one  else  he  brought  over  into 
it  a  new  spirit  and  new  forms;  and  it  is  due  primarily  to  his 
unsurpassed  technical  skill  that  the  German  language  is 
to-day  the  best  medium  for  an  acquaintance,  not  only  with 
the  literature  of  the  West,  but  also  with  that  of  the  East. 

•Schack,  Ein  halbes  Jahrhundert,  Stuttg.  Berl.  Wien,  1894,  vol.  ii.  p.  41.  See  also  Koch, 
op.  cit.  pp.  11-13;  Rud.  Gottschall,  Fried.  Riickert  in  Portraits  u.  Studien,  Leipz.  1870,  vol. 
i.  pp.  163-166;  Rich.  Meyer,  Gesch.  der  Litt.  des  19  Jahrh.  Berl.  1890,  p.  56. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
HEINE. 

BECOMES  INTERESTED  IN  INDIA  THROUGH  SCHLEGEL — INFLU- 
ENCE OF  INDIA'S  LITERATURE  ON  HIS  POETRY — INTEREST 
IN  THE  PERSIAN  POETS — PERSIAN  INFLUENCE  ON  HEINE 
— His  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  THE  ORIENTAL  MOVEMENT. 

"Was  das  Sanskrit-Studium  selbst  betriflft,  so  wird  liber 
den  Nut/en  desselben  die  Xeit  entscheiden.  Portugiesen, 
Hollander  und  Englander  haben  hinge  Zeit  jahraus,  jahrein 
auf  ihren  grossen  Schiffen  die  Schiit/e  Indiens  nach  Hause 
geschleppt;  wir  Deutsche  batten  immer  das  Zusehen.  Aber 
die  geistigen  Schat/e  Indiens  sollen  uns  nicht  entgehen. 
Schlegel,  Bopp,  Ilumboldt,  Frank  u.  s.  \v.  sincl  unsere  jet- 
/igen  Ostindienfahrer;  Bonn  und  Mlinchen  werden  gute 
Faktoreien  sein." 

With  these  words  Heine  sent  forth  his  "  Sonettenkran/  "  to 
A.  W.  von  Schlegel  in  1821.'  These  sonnets  show  what  a 
deep  impression  the  personality  and  lectures  of  the  famous 
romanticist  made  on  him  while  he  was  a  student  at  Bonn,  in 
1819  and  1820.  Schlegel  had  just  then  been  appointed  to  the 
professorship  of  Literature  at  the  newly  created  university, 
and  to  his  lectures  Heine  owed  the  interest  for  India  which 
manifests  itself  in  many  of  his  poems,  and  which  continued 
even  in  later  years  when  his  relations  to  his  former  teacher 
had  undergone  a  complete  change. 

He  never  undertook  the  study  of  Sanskrit.  His  interest  in 
India  was  purelv  poetic.  "Aber  icli  stamme  aus  Ilindostan. 
und  daher  fiihle  ich  micli  so  wohl  in  den  breiten  Sangeswiil- 
dern  Valmikis,  die  Heldenlieder  des  gdttlichen  Ramo  hewe- 
gen  mein  Her/  wie  ein  bekanntes  \Veh.  aus  den  lilumenlie- 
dern  Kalidasas  bliihen  mir  hervor  die  siissesten  Erinnerungen 
(Idccii.  vol.  v.  p.  i  i  5  )- -these  words,  with  some  allowance 
perhaps  for  t  In-  manner  of  the  satirist,  may  well  be  taken  to 

1  Printed  as  \ach\\  <>rt  in  the    Hi-nicrker,   No.   i   ,  Suppl.  t<>  (icscllschaftcr,  N"    r;      See 
also  II.  Ileines  I.i'ben  u.  Werke,  Ad.  Strodtiiiann,  liainb.  iSS;.  vol.  i.  \i.  ;S. 

57 


58 

characterize  the  poet's  attitude  towards  India.  Instinctively 
he  appropriated  to  himself  the  most  beautiful  characteristics 
of  Sanskrit  poetry,  its  tender  love  for  the  objects  of  nature, 
for  flowers  and  animals  and  the  similes  and  metaphors 
inspired  thereby,  and  he  invests  them  with  all  the  grace  and 
charm  peculiar  to  his  muse.  Some  of  his  finest  verses  owe 
their  inspiration  to  the  lotus;  and  in  that  famous  poem 
"Die  Lotosblume  angstigt," — so  beautifully  set  to  music  by 
Schumann — the  favorite  flower  of  India's  poets  may  be  said 
to  have  found  its  aesthetic  apotheosis.  As  is  well  known, 
there  are  t\vo  kinds  of  lotuses,  the  one  opening  its  leaves 
to  the  sun  (Skt.  padma,  pahkaja),  the  other  to  the  moon  (Skt. 
kumuda,  kairava).  Both  kinds  are  mentioned  in  Sakuntala 
(Act.  V.  Sc.  4,  ed.  Kale,  Bombay,  1898,  p.  141):  kumud&nyeva 
6a6G/&kah  savita  bhodhayati  pahkajdnyeva  "the  moon  wakes 
only  the  night  lotuses,  the  sun  only  the  day  lotuses."1  It  is 
the  former  kind,  the  nymphaea  esculenta,  of  which  Heine 
sings,  and  his  conception  of  the  moon  as  its  lover  is  distinc- 
tively Indie  and  constantly  recurring  in  Sanskrit  literature. 
Thus  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  book  of  the  HitopadeSa  the 
moon  is  called  the  lordly  bridegroom  of  the  lotuses.2 

The  splendor  of  an  Indie  landscape  haunts  the  imagination 
of  the  poet.  On  the  wings  of  song  he  will  carry  his  love  to 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges  (vol.  i.  p.  98),  to  that  moonlit  garden 
where  the  lotus-flowers  await  their  sister,  where  the  violets 
peep  at  the  stars,  the  roses  whisper  their  perfumed  tales  into 
each  other's  ears  and  the  gazelles  listen,  while  the  waves  of 
the  sacred  river  make  sweet  music.  And  again  in  a  series  of 
sonnets  addressed  to  Friederike  (Neue  Ged.  vol.  ii.  p.  65)  he 
invites  her  to  come  with  him  to  India,  to  its  palm-trees,  its 
ambra-blossoms  and  lotus-flowers,  to  see  the  gazelles  leaping 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  peacocks  displaying 
their  gaudy  plumage,  to  hear  Kokila  singing  his  impassioned 
lay.  He  sees  Kama  in  the  features  of  his  beloved,  and 

1  Similarly  Bhartrhan,  Niti£.  74. 

2  Atha  kad&cid  ai'asannAydtn  rdtrav  astclcalacild&valambini  bhagavati  kunitidinind- 
yaki  candramasi    ....     (ed.  Bomb.  1891,  p.  7).     "Once  upon  a  time  when  the  night 
was  spent  and  the  moon,  the  lordly  lover  of  the  lotuses,  was  reclining  on  the  crest  of  the 
western  mountain     .     .     .     ."     Of  other  allusions  to  this  lotus  we  may  cite  VikramOrvasI, 
Act  3.  ed.  Parab  and  Telang,  Bomb.  1888,  p.  79 ;  Sak.  Act  iii.  ed.  Kale,  p.  81,  and  Act  iv.  ib. 
p.  96. 


59 


Vasanta  hovering  on  her  lips;  her  smile  moves  the  Gandharvas 
in  their  golden,  sunny  halls  to  song. 

Allusions  to  episodes  from  Sanskrit  literature  are  not  infre- 
quent in  Heine's  writings.  Tke  famous  struggle  between 
King  Visvamitra  with  the  sage  Vasistha  for  example  is  mock- 
ingly referred  to  in  two  stan/as  (vol.  i.  p.  146).'  His  own 
efforts  to  win  the  favor  of  a  certain  Emma  {Nene  Ged.  ii.  54) 
the  poet  likens  to  the  great  act  of  penance  by  which  King 
Bhagiratha  brought  down  the  Ganges  from  heaven.2 

Heine's  prose-writings  also  furnish  abundant  proofs  of  his 
interest  in  and  acquaintance  with  Sanskrit  literature.  In  the 
opening  chapters  of  the  Buck  Lc  Grand  (c.  4,  vol.  v.  p.  114) 
he  brings  before  us  another  vision  of  tropical  Indie  splendor. 
In  his  sketches  from  Italy  (Rciseb.  ii.  vol.  vi.  p.  137)  he  draws 
a  parallel  between  the  priesthood  of  Italy  and  that  of  India, 
which  is  anything  but  flattering  to  either.  It  is  also  not  cor- 
rect;  he  notices,  to  be  sure,  that  in  the  Sanskrit  drama  (of 
which  he  knows  only  Sakuntald  and  Mrcchakatika)  the  role  of 
buffoon  is  assigned  invariably  to  a  Brahman,  but  he  is  igno- 
rant of  the  origin  of  this  singular  custom.3  In  his  essay  on 
the  Romantic  School,  when  speaking  of  Goethe's  godlike 
repose,  he  introduces  bv  way  of  illustration  the  well-known 
episode  from  the  Xala-storv  where  Pamavant!  distinguishes 
her  lover  from  the  gods  who  had  assumed  his  form  by  the 
blinking  of  his  eves  (vol.  i\.  p.  52).  In  the  same  essay  (ibid, 
pp.  49,  50),  he  bestows  enthusiastic  praise  on  Goethe's  Dinm, 
and  this  brings  us  to  the  question  of  Persian  influence  upon 
I  leine. 

Starting  as  he  did  on  his  literary  career  at  the  time  when 
Goethe's  Diran  and  Riickert's  Ostlichc  Rosen  had  inaugurated 
the  llall/ian  movement  in  German  literature,  it  would  have 
been  strange  if  he  had  remained  entirelv  outside  of  the  sphere 
of  its  influence.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  took  some  interest  in 


1  The  episode  occurs 
in  his  Conjugationssyste 

-  Mahfibh.  iii.  108,  icx 
acquaintance  was  due   u 
(Aug.  Schlepel,  Werke, 

*  See  article  on  this  si 


i  KAniAv.  i.  si-5<>.     It  had  been  translated  as  early  as  1816  by  Hopp 

n  der  Sunskritsprache. 

,  KAinAy.   i.   42.45;   MArkandeya   I'ur.  anil  other  works.     Heine's 

iloubtedly   to  Schickel's  translation  in    hulisihe    Hibliothck.  i8»o. 

ii.  20-44. 1 

bject  by  M.  Scliuyler.  Jr..  in  J  A  OS.  vol.  xx    .-.  p.  158  scq. 


60 

Persian  poetry  almost  from  the  outset  of  his  poetical  activity, 
as  his  letters  clearly  show.  As  early  as  1821,  he  mentions 
Sa'dl  with  the  epithet  herrlich,  calls  him  the  Persian  Goethe 
and  cites  one  of  his  couplets  (Gut.  ii.  48,  git.lah;  K.  S.  p.  122) 
in  the  version  of  Herder.1  *In  April,  1823,  he  writes  from 
Berlin  that  during  the 'preceding  winter  he  has  studied  the 
non-Semitic  part  of  Asia,2  and  the  following  year  in  a  letter 
to  Moser3  he  speaks  of  Persian  as  "die  siisse,  rosige,  leuch- 
tende  Bulbulsprache,"  and  goes  on  to  imagine  himself  a  Per- 
sian poet  in  exile  among  Germans.  "  O  Firdusi !  O  Ischami ! 
(sic  for  Jam!)  O  Saadi!  Wie  elend  ist  euer  Bruder!  Ach  wie 
sehne  ich  mich  nach  den  Rosen  von  Schiras. "  Such  a  rose  he 
calls  in  one  of  his  AWvzfo^-poems  "die  Hafisbesungene  Nach- 
tigallbraut "  ("Im  Hafen,"  vol.  i.  p.  218)." 

Yet,  judging  from  the  familiar  epigrams  of  Immermann, 
which  Heine  cites  at  the  end  of  Norderney  {Reiseb.  i.  vol.  v.  p. 
101)  as  expressive  of  his  own  sentiments,  he  seems  to  have 
held  but  a  poor  opinion  of  the  West-Eastern  poetry  that  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  Goethe's  Divan.  He  certainly  never 
attempted  anything  like  an  imitation  of  this  poetry,  and 
Oriental  form  appealed  to  him  even  less.  In  the  famous,  or 
rather  infamous,  passage  of  the  Reisebilder  (vol.  vi.  pp.  125- 
149),  where  he  makes  his  savage  attack  on  Platen,  he  ridicules 
that  poet's  Ghaselen  and  speaks  derisively  of  their  formal 
technique  as  "  schaukelnde  Balancierkiinste  "  (ibid.  p.  136). 
It  is  probable,  however,  that  he  judged  the  yazal  form  not  so 
much  on  its  own  merits  as  on  the  demerits  of  his  adversary. 
It  is  certain  at  any  rate  that  he  has  nowhere  made  use  of  this 
form  of  versification. 

Persian  influence  is  not  noticeable  in  his  earlier  poems;4  his 
Buck  der  Lieder  shows  no  distinctive  traces  of  it.  His  later 
poems,  Neuc  Gedichte  (1844)  and  Romanzero  (1851),  on  the 
other  hand,  show  it  unmistakably.  The  Persian  image  of 

1  Letter  to  Friedr.  Steinmann,  Sammtl.  Werke,  Hamb.  1876,  vol.  xix.  No.  7,  p.  43. 

2  Ibid.  No.  15,  p.  80. 

3  Ibid.  No.  38,  pp.  200,  201. 

4  One  poem  of  his  earliest  period,   Die   Lehre  (vol.   iii.  p.   276),  published   in    Ham- 
burgs  W3chter,  1817  (Strodtmann,  op.  cit.  i.  54),  does  seem  to  show  it.     In  this  the  young 
bee,  heedless  of  motherly  advice,  does  not  beware  of  the  candle-flame  and  so  "  Flamme 
gab  Klammentod."     We  at  once  recognize  a  familiar  Persian  thought,  and  are  reminded  of 
Goethe's  fine  line,  "  Das  Lebend'ge  will  ich  preisen  das  nach   Klammentod  sich  sehnet.'* 
(Selige  Sehnsucht,  ed.  Loeper,  iv.  26.) 


61 

the  rose  and  the  nightingale  is  of  frequent  occurrence.  In  a 
poem  on  Spring  {Neue  Ged.  vol.  ii.  p.  26)  we  read: 

Und  mir  selbst  ist  dann,  als  wtlrd'  ich 
Eine  Nachtigall  und  sS.nge 
Diesen  Rosen  meine  Liebe, 
Traumend  sing'  ich  Wunderklange — . 

The  image  recurs  repeatedly  in  the  Neue  Gedichte,  e.  g. 
Neuer  Fruhling,  Nos.  7,  9,  n,  20,  26;  Verschiedene,  No.  7, 
and  in  Romanzero  (vol.  iii.),  pp.  42,  178,  253.  Even  in  the 
prose-writings  it  is  found,  e.  g.  Florentinische  Ndchte  (vol.  iii. 
p .  43),  Geda nken  und  Einfdlle  (vol.  xii.  309). 

Again,  when  Heine  speaks  of  pearls  that  are  pierced  and 
strung  on  a  silken  thread  ("  Kluge  Sterne,"  Neue  Ged.  vol.  ii. 
p.  106),  he  is  intensely  Persian;  still  more  so  when  he  calls 
Jehuda  ben  Halevy's  verses  {Romanz.  vol.  iii.  p.  136): 

Perlenthrancn,  die,  verbunden 
Durch  des  Reimes  goldnen  Faden, 
Aus  der  Dichtknnst  giildnen  Schmiede 
Als  ein  Lied  hervorgegangen. 

The  Persian  fancy  of  the  moth  and  candle-flame  seems  to 
have  been  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote  ("Die  Libellc. "  vol.  ii. 
p.  288): 

Knisternd  ver/.ehren  die  Flammen  der  Ker/.en 
Die  Kiifer  und  ihre  liebenden  Her/en    .... 

Still  another  Persian  idea,  familiar  to  us  from  a  preceding 
chapter,  is  the  peacock  ashamed  of  his  ugly  feet  ("I'nvol- 
kommenheit,"  Roinanz.  vol.  iii.  p.  103). 

The  Persian  manner  is  even  employed,  and  very  cleverly, 
for  humorous  effect,  for  instance,  in  the  poem  "Jehuda  ben 
Ilalevv,"  cited  before.  In  this  Heine  asks  Hit/ig  for  the 
etymology  of  the  name  Schlemihl,  but  meets  with  nothing 
but  evasive  replies  until  : 

Kndlirh  alle  Knopfe  rissen 
An  der  I  lose  del  (ieduld, 

and  the  poet  begins  to  swear  so  profanelv  that  the  pious 
Hit/ig  surrenders  unconditionally  and  hastens  to  supplv  the 
desired  information.  This  imagi-  ol  tin*  "trousers  of  jia- 


tience "  reminds  us  strikingly  of  such  Persian  phrases  as 
"the  cowl  of  meditation"  (Gul.  ed.  Platts,  p.  4), 
"the  carpet  of  desire"  (ib.  p.  113),  etc.,  which 
are  a  particular  ornament  of  the  highly  artificial  rhymed 
prose,  employed  in  works  like  the  Gulistan  and  Baharistan. 
In  the  latter,  for  instance,  we  read  of  a  youth  whose  mental 
equilibrium  had  been  impaired  by  the  charms  of  a  handsome 

girl:  cXAXi.j  ^y*1)  U*^?.  .5  &*£*&  ^ '"^  L}"W^  "ne  tore 
the  garment  of  prudence  and  put  on  the  rags  of  disgrace."1 

The  description  of  a  countess  in  words  like  those  which 
Heine  puts  into  the  mouth  of  a  Berlin  chamber-musician: 
"  Cypressenwuchs,  Hyacinthenlocken,  der  Mund  ist  Ros'  und 
Nachtigall  zu  gleicher  Zeit,"  .  .  .  {Brief e  aus  Berlin.  No.  3, 
vol.  v.  p.  205)  furnishes  another  instance  in  point. 

And  lastly,  we  must  mention  one  of  the  best  known  of 
Heine's  poems,  the  trilogy  "Der  Dichter  Firdusi,"  the  sub- 
ject of  which  is  the  famous  legend  of  Mahmud's  ingratitude 
to  Persia's  greatest  singer  and  his  tardy  repentance.  We  may 
add  that  scholars  are  not  inclined  to  accept  this  legend  as 
historical  in  all  its  parts;  certainly  not  in  its  artistic  and 
effective  ending.  This,  of  course,  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  literary  merit  of  the  poem,  which  is  deservedly  ranked  as 
one  of  Heine's  happiest  efforts. u 

After  all,  however,  it  is  clear  that  Heine  is  in  no  sense  an 
orientalizing  poet  or  a  follower  of  the  Hafizian  tendency 
which  became  the  vogue  under  the  influence  of  Goethe, 
Riickert  and  Platen.  With  him  the  Oriental  element  never 
was  more  than  an  incidental  feature,  strictly  subordinated 
to  his  own  poetic  individuality,  and  never  dominating  or 
effacing  it,  as  is  the  case  with  most  of  the  professedly  "Per- 
sian" singers, — those  "  Perser  von  dem  Main,  der  Elbe,  von 
der  Isar,  von  der  Pleisse  "— who  thought,  as  lias  justly  been 
remarked,  that  they  had  penetrated  into  the  Persian  spirit  by 
merely  mentioning  guls  and  bulbiih.  Heine  had  no  use  for 
such  trivial  superficiality.  The  singer  of  the  "  Loreley  "  sang 
as  he  felt,  and  in  spite  of  so  many  apparently  un-German  sen- 

1  O.  M.  v.  Schlechta-Wssehrd.  Der  Friihlingsgarten  von  Mewlana  Abdurrahman 
Dschami,  Wien,  1846.  Persian  text,  p.  38. 

3  For  a  discussion  of  the  legend  see  Niildeke  in  Grclr.  iran.  Phil.  vol.  ii.  pp.  154,  155, 158. 


63 

timents  in  his  writings  he  had  a  right  to  say  (Z>/V  Heimkehr, 
vol.  i.  p.  131): 

Ich  bin  ein  deutscher  Dichter, 
Bekannt  im  deutschen  Land  ; 
Nennt  man  die  besten  Namen, 
So  wird  auch  der  meine  genannt. 


CHAPTER    X. 
BODENSTEDT. 

LlEDER  DES  MlRZA  SCHAFFY ARE  ORIGINAL   POEMS NACH- 

LASS AUS  MORGENLAND  UND  AfiENDLAND SAKUNTALA, 

A  NARRATIVE  POEM. 

The  Hafid  tendency  was  carried  to  the  height  of  popularity 
by  Friedrich  Martin  Bodenstedt,  whose  Lieder  des  Mirza 
Schaffy  met  with  a  phenomenal  success,  running  through  one 
hundred  and  forty  editions  in  Germany  alone  during  the  life- 
time of  the  author,  besides  being  translated  into  many  foreign 
languages.1  These  songs  have  had  a  remarkable  career, 
which  the  author  himself  relates  in  an  essay  appended  to  the 
Nachlass.  * 

According  to  the  prevailing  opinion,  Mirza  Schaffy  was  a 
great  Persian  poet,  a  rival  of  Sa'di  and  Hafid,  and  Bodenstedt 
was  the  translator  of  his  songs.  Great,  therefore,  was  the 
astonishment  of  the  European,  and  particularly  the  German 
public,  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  name  of  this  famous 
poet  was  utterly  unknown  in  the  East,  even  in  his  own  native 
land.  As  early  as  1860,  Professor  Brugsch,  when  in  Tiflis, 
had  searched  for  the  singer's  grave,  but  in  vain ;  nobody  could 
tell  him  where  a  certain  Mirza  Schaffy  lay  buried.  At  last,  in 
1870,  the  Russian  counsellor  Adolph  Berge  gave  an  authentic 
account  of  the  real  man  and  his  literary  activity.3  Two  things 
were  clearly  established:  first,  that  such  a  person  as  Mirza. 
Safi'  had  really  existed;  second,  that  this  person  was  no  poet. 
On  this  second  point  the  few  scraps  of  verse  which  Berge  had 
been  able  to  collect,  and  which  he  submitted  in  the  essay  cited 
above,  leave  absolutely  no  doubt.  So,  in  1874,  when  Boden- 
stedt published  another  poetic  collection  of  Mirza  Schaffy,  he 

1  Hebrew  by  Jos.  Choczner,  Breslau,  1868 ;  Dutch  by  van  Krieken,  Amst.  1875 ;  Eng- 
lish by  E.  d'Esterre,  Hamb.  1880;  Italian  by  Giuseppe  Rossi,  1884  ;  Polish  by  Dzialoszye, 
Warsaw,   1888.    See  list  in  G.  Schenk,  Friedr.  Bodenstedt,  Ein  Dichterleben  in  seinen 
Briefen,  Berl.  1893,  PP-  246-248. 

2  Aus  dem  Nachlasse  Mirza  Schaffys,  Berl.  1874,  pp.  191-223. 

3  In  ZDMG.  vol.  xxiv.  pp.  425-432. 

64 


65 

appended  an  essay  wherein  he  explained  clearly  the  origin 
and  the  nature  of  the  original  collection  bearing  that  name. 

According  to  his  own  statements,  these  poems  are  not  trans- 
lations. They  are  entirely  his  own,1  and  were  originally  not 
an  independent  collection,  but  part  of  the  biographical  romance 
Tausend  und  ein  Tag  i  in  Orient.*  This  should  be  kept  in  mind 
if  we  wish  to  estimate  them  at  their  true  value. 

Nevertheless  the  poems  are-  genuinely  Oriental  and  owe  their 
existence  to  the  author's  stay  in  the  East,  particularly  in  Tiflis, 
during  the  winter  1843-44.  But  for  this  residence  in  the 
Orient,  so  Bodenstedt  tells  us,3  a  large  part  of  them  would 
never  have  seen  the  light. 

In  form,  however,  they  are  Occidental  —  the  yazaf  being  used 
only  a  few  times  (e.  g.  ii.  135,  or  in  the  translations  from 
Hand  in  chap.  21:  ii.  70  =  I_I.  8;  ii.  72  =  H.  155,  etc.)  In 
spirit  they  are  like  Hafid.  "  Mein  Lehrer  ist  Hafis,  mein 
Bethaus  ist  die  Schenke,  "  so  Mirxa  Schaffy  himself  proclaims 
(i.  p.  96),  and  images  and  ideas  from  Hand,  familiar  to  us 
from  preceding  chapters,  meet  us  everywhere.  The  stature 
like  a  cypress,  the  nightingale  and  the  rose,  the  verses  like 
pearls  on  a  string,  and  others  could  be  cited  as  instances. 
Other  authors  are  also  laid  under  contribution;  thus  the 
comparison  of  Mir/a  Schaffy  to  a  bee  seems  to  have  been 
suggested  by  a  maxim  of  Sa'clT  (Gitl.  viii.  X<>.  77.  ed.  Platts: 
K.  S.  p.  268),  where  a  wise  man  without  practice  is  called  a 
bee  without  honey,  and  the  thought  in  the  last  verse  of  "  Die 
Rose  auch  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  85),  that  the  rose  cannot  do  without 
dirt  and  the  nightingale  feeds  on  worms,  is  a  reminiscence  of 
a  storv  of  Nidami  which  we  had  occasion  to  cite  in  the  chapter 
on  Riickert  (see  p.  43).  In  one  case  a  poem  contains  a  Per- 
sian proverb.  Mir/a  Schaffv  criticises  the  opinions  ot  the 
Shah's  vixiers  in  the  words:  "  Ich  liore  das  Geklapper  einer 
Miihle,  doch  sehe  ich  kein  Mehl"  (1.85),  a  literal  rendering  of 


Of  course  the  in  it  I  I  ft*  and   hypocrites   in   general  are  roundly 

1  With  few  exceptions,  pointed  out  by  Horlcnsteilt  himself,  e.  R.  "  Mullah  rein  ist  der 
Wein  "  is  from  the  Tarlaric.  N'achlass.  p.  208. 

'J  Kricdr.  Hodenstedts  (lesaminelte  Schriften,  lierlin,  1865,  u  vols.  Vols.  i  and  ii.  All 
references  to  the  Lieder  des  M.  S.  are  to  this  edition. 

3  Nachlass.  p.  i  i;. 


66 

scored,  especially  in  chapter  27,  where  the  sage,  angered  by 
the  reproaches  which  the  mustaliid  has  made  to  him  for  his  bad 
conduct  and  irreligious  poetry,  gives  vent  to  his  sentiments  of 
disgust  in  a  number  of  poems  (vol.  ii.  p.  137  seq. ).  Boden- 
stedt  undoubtedly  had  in  mind  the  persecutions  to  which 
Hfifi(J  was  subject,  culminating  in  the  refusal  of  the  priests  to 
give  him  regular  burial  and  giving  rise  to  the  famous  story  of 
the  fatva. 

The  tavern  and  the  praise  of  wine  are,  of  course,  bound  to 
be  prominent  features.  In  the  same  credo  where  Mirza  Schaffy 
proclaims  Hafid  as  his  teacher  he  also  proclaims  the  tavern  as 
his  house  of  prayer  (i.  p.  96),  and  so  he  celebrates  the  day 
when  he  quit  the  mosque  for  the  wine-house  (i.  p.  98;  cf.  H. 
213.  4).  The  well  known  poem  "Aus  dem  Feuerquell  des 
Weines  "  (i.  p.  106)  is  in  sentiment  exactly  like  a  quatrain  of 
'Umar  Xayyam  (Bodl.  ed.  Heron-Allen,  Boston,  1898,  No. 
78;  Whinfield,  195);  the  last  verse  is  based  on  a  couplet  of 
Sa'di  {Gul.  i.  4,  last  qiVah,  Platts,  p.  18)  which  is  cited  imme- 
diately after  the  poem  itself  (i.  p.  107). 

A  collection  of  Hafizian  songs  would  scarcely  be  complete 
without  a  song  in  praise  of  Shiraz.  This  we  get  in  vol.  ii.  p. 
48,  where  Shiraz  is  compared  to  Tiflis;  and  just  as  the  former 
was  made  famous  through  Hafid,  so  the  latter  will  -become 
famous  through  Mirza  Schaffy.  Little  did  the  worthy  sage  of 
Ganja  dream  that  this  would  come  literally  true.  Yet  it  did. 
The  closing  lines  of  the  poem — 

Beriihmt  1st  Tiflis  durch  dein  Lied 
Vom  Kyros  bis  zum  Rhein  geworden — 

are  no  empty  boast ;  they  simply  express  a  fact. 

None  of  Bodenstedt's  later  poetic  publications  ever  attained 
the  success  of  the  Mirza  Schaffy  songs,  and,  it  may  be  added, 
none  of  them  equalled  those  songs  in  merit.  In  1874  the 
author  resolved  once  more  to  try  the  magic  of  that  name  and 
so  he  launched  forth  a  collection  called  Aus  dcm  Nachlasse 
Mirza  Schaffy  s,  and  to  emphasize  the  Persian  character  of 
these  poems  the  Persian  translation  of  the  title,  \Li  xl_A_Xw1  \\ 

p-*JLj&  Kj-^°  StXiLo,  appeared  on  the  title-page.  In  spite  of  all 
this,  however,  the  Orientalism  in  these  poems  is  more  artificial 


67 

than  natural;  it  is  not  felt  as  something  essential  without 
which  the  poems  could  not  exist.  The  praise  of  wine,  which 
is  the  main  theme  of  the  second  book, — for  the  collection  is 
divided  into  seven  books, — is  certainly  not  characteristically 
Persian;  European,  and  especially  German  poets  have  also 
been  very  liberal  and  very  proficient  in  bibulous  verse.  The 
maxims  that  make  up  the  third  and  a  portion  of  the  fourth  book 
are  for  the  most  part  either  plainly  unoriental,  or  else  so  per- 
fectly general,  and,  we  may  add,  so  hopelessly  commonplace, 
as  to  fit  in  anywhere.  Some,  however,  are  drawn  from  Per- 
sian sources.  Thus  from  the  Gnlistdn  we  have  in  the  third 
book,  Nos.  8  (Gitl.  Pref.  p.  7,  last  qitfah~),  9  (ibid.  p.  6, 
first  three  couplets),  12  (ibid.  iii.  27,  maO.  p.  89)  and  36 
(saying  of  the  king  in  Gnl.  i.  i,  p.  13).  No.  31  is  from  the 
introduction  to  the  Hitdpadcsa  (third  couplet).'  "Die  Cv- 
presse,"  p.  103,  is  suggested  by  Gnl.  viii.  111  (  K.  S.  81). 

The  Oriental  stories  which  form  the  contents  of  the  fifth 
book  are  of  small  literary  value.  Some  of  them  read  like 
versified  lessons  in  Eastern  religion,  as,  for  instance,  "  Der 
Sufi,"  p.  in,  which  is  a  rhymed  exposition  of  a  Sufistic  prin- 
ciple," and  "  Der  Wiistenheilige,"  which  enunciates  through 
the  lips  of  Zoroaster  himself  his  doctrine  that  good  actions 
are  worth  more  than  ascetic  practices.3  On  p.  121  1 1m  Vamln 
is  credited  with  the  storv  of  the  poet  and  the  glow-worm, 
which  is  found  in  Sa'dl's  Bilstiin  (ed.  Platts  and  Rogers, 
Loud.  1891,  p.  127;  tr.  Barbier  de  Mevnard,  Paris,  1880,  p. 
163).  The  famous  storv  of  Vfisuf  and  ZalT^fi,  as  related  hv 
Jfuni  and  Firdausi,  is  the  subject  of  the  longest  poem  in  tin- 
book  and  is  told  in  a  somewhat  flippant  manner,  p.  135  seq. 
The  stories  told  of  Sa'dl's  reception  at  court  and  his  subse- 
quent banishment  through  the  calumnv  of  the  courtiers,  pp. 
123-128,  seem  to  be  pure  invention;  at  least  there  is  nothing, 
as  far  as  we  know,  in  the  lite  or  writings  ot  the  Persian  poet 
that  could  have  furnished  the-  material  for  these  poems.4 

1  Or  else  a  saying  of  Muhammad  exactly  like  it,  cited  by  Prof.  Hrugsch  in  Aus  cU-in 
Morgenlandc,  l.|>/..  Keel,  t'niv.  Uibl.  3isi-a.  p.  57. 

•  C,f.  Hodenstedt's  remarks  on  Sutism  in  Nachtrag,  p.  njb  seq. 

3  See  my  article  on  Religion  of  Ancient  Persia  in  Progress,  vol.  iii.  No.  5,  p.  z.jo. 

4  A  complete  history  of  Sa'di's  life,  drawn  from  his  own  u  i  kings  as  \\  ell  as  other  sources. 
is  given  by  W.  Hacher,  Sa'dl's  Aphorismen  mid  Smngedii -lite,  Strassb.  iS;.,.     On  the  rela- 
tion of  the  poet  to  the  rulers  of  his  time,  see  esp.  p.  xxxv  sec]. 


68 

In  1882,  still  another  collection  of  Bodenstedt's  poems, 
entitled  Aus  Morgenland  und  Abendland,  made  its  appearance. 
Like  the  Nachlass  it  also  has  seven  divisions,  of  which  only 
the  second,  fourth  and  sixth  are  of  interest  for  us  as  contain- 
ing Oriental  material.1 

One  poem,  however,  in  the  first  book,  "An  eine  Kerze, "  p. 
5,  should  be  mentioned  as  of  genuinely  Persian  character. 
The  candle  as  symbolical  of  the  patient,  self-sacrificing  lover 
is  a  familiar  feature  of  Persian  belles-lettres  (cf.  H.  299.  4; 
301.  5  ;  or  Riickert's  "  Die  Kerze  und  die  Flasche, "  see  above, 
p.  43).  The  last  line  reminds  us  of  a  verse  of  JurjanT,  cited 
by  Jam!  in  the  Baharistan  (ed.  Schlechta-Wssehrd,  p.  in), 
exhorting  the  ruler  to  be  like  a  flame,  always  pointing 
upwards. 

The  second  book  brings  another  contribution  of  sententious 
wisdom,  most  of  which  is  neither  new  nor  Oriental.  Of  Ori- 
ental sources  the  Gulistan  is  best  represented.  From  it  are 
taken  Nos.  8  (Gut.  ii.  4,  last  couplet),  9  (ibid.  i.  i),  41  (ibid, 
i.  21,  prose-passage  before  the  maO.  p.  33;  K.  S.  p.  55),  43 
(ibid.  i.  17,  coupl.  4,  p.  29;  K.  S.  p.  49),  52  (ibid.  i.  29, 
coupl.  2 ;  K.  S.  p.  66).  No.  47,  which  is  credited  to  Ibn 
Yamin,  is  from  the  Baharistan  (tr.  K.  S.  p.  46;  Red.  p.  338). 
No.  49  is  a  very  free  rendering  of  a  quatrain  of  'Umar  Xayyam 
(Whinf.  347;  Red.  p.  8i).4 

The  fourth  book  offers  stories,  all  of  which,  except  the  first 
two,  are  from  Persian  sources.  Thus  from  the  Gulistan  are 
"Die  Berichtigung"  {Gul.  i.  31;  K.  S.,  p.  67)  and  "  Der 
Konigsring"  (6W.  iii.  27,  last  part,  p.  92;  K.  S.  p.  157). 
"  Nachtigall  und  Falk  "  is  from  Nidami,  as  was  pointed  out 
before  (see  above,  p.  43).  "Das  Paradies  der  Glaubigen  "  is 
from  Jam!  {Red.  p.  324;  given  there  as  from  the  SubJuit  ul- 
abrar)  and  "  Ein  Bild  der  Welt"  is  from  Ibn  Yamin  (Red.  p. 
236). 3  The  longest  story  of  the  book  is  "  Dara  und  Sara," 
which  gives  the  legend  of  the  discovery  of  wine  by  King 
Jamsid,  told  by  Mlr^vand  in  his  Randat  us_-s_afd.*  Besides 

1  We  cite  from  the  third  edition,  1887. 

-  Translated  more  closely  by  Bodenstedt  in  Die  Lieder  und  Spriiche  des  Omar  Chajjam, 
Breslau,  1881,  p.  29. 

3  Schlechta-Wssehrd,  Ibn  Jemins  Bruchstvicke,  Wien,  1852,  pp.  138,  139. 

4  Tr.  David  Shea,  Hist,  of  the  Early  Kings  of  Persia,  Lond.  1832,  pp.  102-104  ;  Malcolm, 
i.  p.  jo,  noie  b. 


69 

changing  the  name  of  the  king  to  Dara,  in  order  to  make 
the  poem  more  romantic,  we  find  that  Bodenstedt  has  made 
some  decided  alterations  and  has  considerably  amplified  the 
legend.  Thus  in  his  version  the  motive  of  the  lady's  attempt 
at  suicide  is  despised  love,  while  in  the  original  it  is  only  a 
prosaic  nervous  headache.  In  both  cases,  however,  the 
sequel  is  the  same. 

Finally,  the  sixth  book  offers  very  free  paraphrases  of 
poems  by  RumT,  Sa'dl,  Amir  Mu'izzi  and  Anvari,  who,  oddly 
enough,  are  termed  "Vorlaufer  des  Mir/a  Schaffy."  The 
source  for  most  of  these  poems  was  evidently  Hammer's 
Gcschichtc  tier  schonen  Redekiinste  Per  sic  ns.  To  realize  with 
what  freedom  Bodenstedt  has  treated  his  models,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  compare  some  of  the  poems  from  Ruml  with 
Hammer's  versions,  e.  g.  "  Glaube  und  Unglaube"  (Red.  p. 
175),  "Der  Mensch  und  die  Welt"  (ibid.  p.  180),  "Des 
Lebens  Kreislauf"  (ibid.  p.  178),  "  Wach'  auf  "  (ibid.  p.  181). 
"Die  Pilger,"  p.  188,  attributed  to  Jfunl,  is  likewise  from 
Ruml  {Red.  p.  181  ;  cf.  Rtickert,  ]Verke,  vol.  v.  p.  220).  The 
poems  from  Sa'dl  can  mostly  be  traced  to  the  Gulistdn  ;  they 
are  so  freely  rendered  that  they  have  little  in  common  with 
the  originals  except  the  thought.  No.  i  is  Gnl.  ii.  18,  qit'aJi 
i,  to  which  the  words  of  Luqmun  are  added;  no.  2  is  from 
Gul.  iii.  10,  couplet  (p.  76;  K.  S.  p.  129);  no.  3  is  Gnl.  iii. 
27,  //iciO.  (p.  89;  K.  S.,  p.  151):  no.  4  is  Gul.  iii.  27,  i/it'a/i  (p. 
91;  K.  S.,  p.  154)  and  no.  5  is  Gul.  i.  39,  inaQ.  The  poem 
"  Ileimat  und  Fremde"  is  taken  from  Amir  Mu'i/c/I.1  the 
court-poet  of  Malak  Shfih,  who  in  turn  took  it  from  AnvarT. 
It  is  cited  in  the  Jfaft  Qulzuin  to  illustrate  a  kind  of  poetic 
theft.3  "  Fnterschied  "  is  from  Jam!  (Red.  p.  315,  given  as 
from  Snbluit  ul-abr<lr)<  "  Warum  "  from  Ibn  VaniTn  {Red.  p. 
235);  "Die  Sterne"  and  "Die  Xeit  "  are  both  from  Anvari 
{Red.  pp.  98,  99). 

So  far,  Bodenstedt  had  taken  the  material  for  his  Oriental 
poems  from  Persia,  but  now  he  turned  to  India  and  in  1887 
appeared  Sakuntala,  a  romantic  epic  in  five  cantos.  In  the  main 
it  follows  the  story  of  Kalidasa's  famous  drama,  but  the  version 

1  Ktlit'-  in  (irdr.  ir:ui.  I'liil.  ii.  |>.  z'-c  ;  I'i/./.i.  Storia,  vol.  i.  pp.  SS,  215. 
'J  Kiickcrt,  Gram.  I'oct.  u.  Rlict.  clcr  1'crscr,  ]>.  3'.?. 


70 

in  the  Mahabhdrata  is  also  used,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
episodes  are  invented.  Even  where  the  account  of  the  drama 
is  followed,  changes  of  a  more  or  less  sweeping  nature  are 
frequent.  We  cannot  say  that  they  strike  us  as  so  many 
improvements  on  Kalidasa;  they  certainly  often  destroy  or 
obliterate  characteristic  Indie  features.  Thus  in  the  drama 
the  failure  of  the  king  to  recognize  Sakuntala  is  the  result  of 
a  curse  pronounced  against  the  girl  by  the  irascible  saint 
Durvasas,  whom  she  has  inadvertently  failed  to  treat  with  due 
respect,  and  the  ring  is  merely  a  means  of  breaking  the  spell. 
All  this  is  highly  characteristic  of  Hindu  thought.  In  Boden- 
stedt's  poem,  however,  remembering  and  forgetting  are  depen- 
dent on  a  magic  quality  inherent  in  the  ring  itself, — a  trait 
that  is  at  home  in  almost  any  literature.1 

There  are,  besides,  many  minor  changes.  The  vidusaka,  or 
fun-making  attendant  of  the  king,  is  left  out,  and  so  the  war- 
riors express  the  sentiments  that  he  utters  at  the  beginning  of 
Act  2.  Dusyanta  does  not  bid  farewell  to  his  beloved  in  per- 
son, but  leaves  a  letter.  Again,  after  he  has  failed  to  recog- 
nize her,  she  returns  to  the  hermitage  of  Kanva,  whereas  in 
the  drama  she  is  transported  to  that  of  Kasyapa  on  the 
Hemakuta  mountain.  So,  of  course,  the  aerial  ride  of  the 
king  in  Indra's  wagon  is  also  done  away  with. 

In  many  places,  on  the  other  hand,  the  poem  follows  the 
drama  very  closely.  For  instance,  the  passage  in  the  first 
canto  describing  the  mad  elephant  (pp.  14,  15  )2  is  a  paraphrase 
of  the  warning  uttered  by  one  of  the  holy  men  in  Act  i.  Sc.  4 
(ed.  Kale,  p.  40).  The  discourse  of  Sakxintala  wTith  her  friends 
(pp.  37,  38),  the  incident  of  the  bee  and  Priyamvadfi's  playful 
remark  (pp.  38—40)  are  closely  modelled  after  the  fourth  scene 
of  Act  i.  Many  passages  of  the  poem  are  in  fact  nothing  but 
translations.  Thus  the  words  which  the  king  on  leaving 
\vrites  to  Sakuntala  (p.  78)  : 

Doch  mein  Herz  wird  stets  zuriickbewegt, 
Wie  die  wehende  Fahne  an  der  Stange, 
Die  man  vollem  Wind  entgegentragt — 

1  Cf.  the  story  of  Charlemagne  and  the  magic  stone  given  to  him  by  a  grateful  serpent. 
Grimm,  Deutsche  Sagen,  i.  130. 

2  We  cite  from  an  edition  publ.  at  Leipzig,  no  date. 


71 

are  a  pretty  close  rendering  of  the  final  words  of  the  king's 
soliloquy  at  the  end  of  Act  i : 


cetah 


gacchati  purah  sarlratn  dhavati  pa&cdd  asamstutam  ce 
cinamSnkam  iva  ketdh  prativatam  niyamanasya 

"my  body  goes  forward;  the  mind  not  agreeing  with  it  flies 
backward  like  the  silken  streamer  of  a  banner  borne  against 
the  wind." 

A  large  part  of  the  whole  poem  is  pure  invention,  designed 
to  make  the  story  more  exciting  by  means  of  a  greater  variety 
of  incident.  Such  invented  episodes,  for  instance,  are  the 
gory  battle-scenes  that  take  up  the  first  part  of  the  fourth 
canto,  the  omen  of  the  fishes  in  the  fifth,  and  the  episodes  in 
which  Bharata  plays  the  chief  role  in  that  canto.  Some  of  the 
things  told  of  this  boy,  how  he  knocks  down  the  gate-keeper 
who  refuses  to  admit  his  mother,  how  he  strikes  the  queen 
Vasumati  who  had  insulted  her,  and  how  he  slays  the  assassin 
whom  this  jealous  queen  had  sent  against  him,  are  truly 
remarkable  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  hero  of  all  these 
exploits  cannot  be  more  than  six  years  of  age  (see  pp.  112, 
113).  The  account  in  the  MahUblidrata^  to  be  sure,  tells  of 
equally  fabulous  exploits  performed  by  the  youth,  but  there 
we  move  in  an  atmosphere  of  the  marvelous.  In  Bodenstedt's 
poem,  however,  the  supernatural  has  been  almost  complete!  v 
banished,  and  we  cannot  help  noticing  the  improbability  of 
these  deeds. 


CHAPTER    XI. 
THE    MINOR    ORIENTALIZING   POETS. 

SOME    LESS    KNOWN    POETS    WHO    ATTEMPTED    THE    ORIENTAL 

MANNER. 

To  enumerate  the  names  of  all  the  German  poets  who 
affected  the  Oriental  manner  would  be  to  give  a  list  of  the 
illustrious  obscure.  Most  of  them  have  only  served  to  fur- 
nish another  illustration  of  Horace's  famous  mediocribus  essc 
poetis.  A  bare  mention  of  such  names  as  Loschke,  Levitsch- 
nigg,  Wihl,  Stieglitz  and  von  Hermannsthal  will  suffice.1 
The  last  mentioned  poet  gives  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
inanity  of  most  of  this  kind  of  work.  He  uses  the  yazal  form 
for  stories  about  such  persons  as  the  Gracchi  and  BlUcher," 
and,  what  is  still  more  curious,  for  tirades  against  the  Oriental 
tendency.3  A  poet  of  different  calibre  is  Daumer,  whose 
Hafis  (Hamb.  1846)  for  a  long  time  was  regarded  as  a  trans- 
lation, whereas  the  poems  of  the  collection  are  in  reality 
original  productions  in  Hfifid's  manner,  just  like  Riickert's 
Ostliche  Rosen.*'  Their  sensuous,  passionate  eroticism,  how- 
ever, is  not  a  genuine  Hafid  quality,  as  we  before  have  seen. 
The  same  criticism  applies  even  much  more  forcibly  to  Sche- 
fer's  Hafis  in  Hellas  (Hamburg,  i853).5  Special  mention  is  due 
to  the  gifted,  but  unfortunate,  Heinrich  Leuthold,  whose 
Ghaselen  deserve  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of  Platen's.  Like 
Platen  and  Riickert,  he  too  proclaims  himself  a  reveller  : 

Zur  Gottheit  ward  die  Schonheit  mir 
Und  mein  Gebet  wird  zum  Ghasel. — 

But  these  Ghaselen  do  not  attempt  to  be  so  intensely  Persian 
as  to  reproduce  the  objectionable  features  of  Persian  poetry. 
Thus  Leuthold  sings: 

1  On  these  see  Paul  Horn,  Was  verdanken  Wir  Persien,  in  Nord  u.  Slid,  Heft  282,  p.  386 
seq. 

2  Ghaselen,  Leipz.  Reel.  Univ.  Bibl.  No.  371,  pp.  96,  99. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  49-54.     An  einen  Freund. 

4  See  von  Schack,  Strophen  des  Omar  Chijam,  p.  117. 

6  Horn  in  article  cited,  p.  389;  Emil  Hrenning,  Leopold  Schefer,  Bremen,  1884,  p.  135. 

72 


73 

Vor  allem  ein  Lebehoch  dem  Hafis,  dem  Patriarchen  der  Zunft  ! — 
D'rum  bringe  die  liebliche  Schenkin  das  Gold  geftillter  Becher  hinein  !' 

Evidently  the  poet  sees  no  necessity  for  retaining  the  sayi, 
but  makes  the  poem  more  acceptable  to  Western  taste  by  sub- 
stituting a  "  Schenkin  "  for  Platen's  "  Schenke." 

The  Oriental  story  was  cultivated  by  J.  F.  Castelli.  Many 
of  the  subjects  of  his  Oricntalische  Granatcn  (Dresden,  1852) 
had  already  been  used  by  Rtickert.  Another  Oriental  story- 
teller in  verse  is  Ludwig  Bowitsch,  whose  Sindibad  (Leipzig, 
1860)  contains  mostly  Arabic  material.  Friedrich  von  Sallet 
has  written  a  poem  on  /.erduscht*  which  gives  the  Iranian 
legend  of  the  attempt  made  by  the  sorcerers  to  burn  the  new- 
born child.3  It  would,  however,  lead  us  too  far  were  we  to 
mention  single  poems  on  Oriental  subjects  or  of  Oriental 
tendency. 

Head  and  shoulders  above  all  these  less  known  poets  tow- 
ers the  figure  of  Count  von  Schack,  who,  like  Riickert,  com- 
bined the  poetic  gift  with  the  learning  of  the  scholar,  and 
who  thus  stands  out  a  worthy  successor  of  the  German  Brah- 
man as  a  representative  of  the  idea  of  the  Weltlitteratur.  A 
discussion  of  his  work  is  a  fitting  close  for  this  investigation. 

1  Gedichte,  Krauenfeld,  1879,  p.  144  (xvi). 

2  Gesammelte  Gedichte,  Leipz.  Reclam,  Nos.  551-3,  p.  128. 

3  See  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  p.  2g. 


CHAPTER    XII. 
VON    SCHACK. 

His  FAME  AS  TRANSLATOR  OF  FIRDAUSI —  STIMMEN  VOM 
GANGES — SAKUNTALA  COMPARED  WITH  THE  ORIGINAL 
IN  THE  MAHABHARATA —  His  ORIENTAL  SCHOLARSHIP  IN 
HIS  ORIGINAL  POEMS  —  ATTITUDE  TOWARDS  HAFIZIAN 
SINGERS. 

As  an  Orientalist,  von  Schack's  scholarship  is  amply  attested 
by  his  numerous  and  excellent  translations  from  Arabic,  Per- 
sian and  Sanskrit.  His  Heldensagen  des  Firdusi,  as  is  well 
known,  has  become  a  standard  work  of  German  literature. 
In  fact,  we  may  say  that  his  reputation  rests  more  upon  his 
translations  than  upon  his  poems. 

Though  we  have  consistently  refrained  from  discussing 
translations,  it  is  felt  that  the  Stimmen  vom  Ganges,  which  is  a 
collection  of  Indie  legends  from  various  sources,  especially 
from  the  Pi/rdnas,  cannot  be  left  entirely  out  of  consideration.1 
In  many  respects  these  poems  have  the  charm  of  original  work. 
The  models  moreover  are  used  with  great  freedom.  To 
cite  von  Schack's  own  words:  "  Fur  eigentliche  Ubertra- 
gungen  konnen  diese  Dichtungen  in  der  Gestalt,  wie  sie 
hier  vorliegen,  nicht  gelten,  da  bei  der  Bearbeitung  bald 
grossere  bald  geringere  Freiheit  gewaltet  hat,  auch  manches 
Storende  und  Weitschweifige  ausgeschieden  wurde  ;  doch 
hielt  ich  es  fur  unstatthaft,  am  Wesentlichen  des  Stoffes  und 
der  Motive  Anderungen  vorzunehmen.  In  Gedanken  und 
Ausdruck  haben,  wenn  nicht  der  jedesmal  vorliegende  Text, 
so  doch  stets  Indische  Werke  zu  Vorbildern  gedient.": 

A  brief  comparison  of  any  one  of  these  poems  with  the 
Sanskrit  original  will  show  the  correctness  of  this  statement. 

1  Stimmen  vom  Ganges.  Eine  Sammlung  Indischer  Sagen,  2  Auflage,  Stuttgart,  1877. 
The  first  edition  appeared  in  1857.  There  the  eleventh  story  was  Yadu's  Meeriahrt  (from 
Harivamsa).  In  the  second  edition  this  was  omitted  and  an  imitation  of  the  NaUJdaya  sub- 
stituted as  an  appendix.  The  sources  for  each  poem  are  given  by  the  author  himself  in 
Nachwort,  p.  215,  note. 

a  Op.  cit.  p.  216. 

74 


75 

Let  vis  take,  as  an  illustration,  the  second,  which  gives  the 
famous  legend  of  Sakuntala  from  the  Mahabhdrata  (i.  69-74; 
Bombay  ed.  i.  92-100). 

Schack  leaves  out  unnecessary  details  and  wearisome  repe- 
titions. Thus  the  elaborate  account  of  the  Brahmans  whom 
the  king  sees  on  entering  the  hermitage  of  Kanva  and  their 
different  occupations  (Mb/i.  70,  37-47)  is  condensed  into 
fourteen  lines,  p.  36.  Again,  in  the  original,  when  Sakun- 
tala tells  the  story  of  her  birth,  the  speech  by  which  Indra 
urges  Menaku  to  undertake  the  temptation  of  Visvfimitra  is 
given  at  some  length  (Mbh.  71,  20-26);  so  also  the  reply  of 
the  timid  nymph  (ibid.  71,  27-42);  the  story  of  the  tempta- 
tion itself  is  narrated  with  realistic  detail  in  true  Hindu 
fashion  (ibid.  72,  1-9).  All  this  takes  up  thirty-three  sldkas. 
Schack  devotes  to  it  barely  five  lines,  p.  38 ;  the  speeches  of 
Indra  and  Menaka  he  omits  altogether.  Again,  when  the 
king  proposes  to  the  fair  maid,  he  enters  into  a  learned  dis- 
quisition on  the  eight  kinds  of  marriage,  explaining  which 
ones  are  proper  for  each  caste,  which  ones  are  never  proper, 
and  so  forth;  finally  he  proposes  the  Gandharva  form  (Mbh. 
73,  6-14).  It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  Schack's  poem  the 
king's  proposal  is  much  less  didactic  and  much  more  direct, 
pp.  40,  41. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  see  how  closely  the  poet  sometimes 
follows  his  model  we  need  but  compare  all  that  follows  the 
words  '' Kaum  war  er  gegangen,"  p.  42,  to  ''Dem  sind  nim- 
nierdar  die  Gotter  gnadig,"  p.  47.  with  the  Sanskrit  original 
(Mbh.  73,  24-74,  33). 

Minor  changes  in  phrases  or  words,  advisable  on  aesthetic 
grounds,  are  of  course  frequent.  Similes,  lor  instance,  appeal- 
ing too  exclusivelv  to  Hindu  taste,  were  made  more  general. 
Thus  in  Sakunt'ala's  reply  to  the  king,  p.  51,  the  faults  of 
others  are  likened  in  si/e  to  sand  grains,  and  those  of  him- 
selt  to  glebes.  In  Sanskrit,  however,  the  comparison  is  to 
mustard-grains  and  bilva-fruits  respectively.  A  few  lines 
further  on  the  maid  declares: 

"  So  aberrant  mi- in  Stamm  ilcnn 
Wi-it  den  deinen,  wissc  das,  Duschmanta  '.  " 

which  passage  in  the  original  reads:  Ciraynr  antarctin  pa*\a  mem 


76 

sar&apor  iva,  "behold!  the  difference  between  us  is  like  that 
between  a  mustard-seed  and  Mount  Meru."  In  the  same 
speech  of  Sakuntala  the  Sanskrit  introduces  a  striking  simile 
which  Schack  omits  as  too  specifically  Indie: 

miirkhd  hi  jalpatdm  pumsdm  Srutvd  vdcdh  Subhdsnbhah 
aSubham  vdkyam  ddatte  puri§am  iva  sukarah 
prdjnas  tit  jalpatam  pumsam  Srutvd  vdcah  Subhdsubhdh 
gunavad  vdkyam  ddatte  hamsdh  k$iram  ivdmbhasah 

(Mbh.  74.  90,  91.) 

"  The  fool  having  heard  men's  speeches  containing  good  and  evil  chooses 
the  evil  just  as  a  hog  dirt;  but  the  wise  man  having  heard  men's  speeches 
containing  good  and  evil  chooses  the  worthy,  just  as  a  swan  (separates) 
milk  from  water."1 

We  believe  that  these  illustrations  will  suffice  to  give  an 
idea  of  the  relation  which  Schack's  poems  bear  to  the  orig- 
inals. 

His  fondness  for  things  Oriental  finds  also  frequent  expres- 
sion in  his  own  poems.  In  Ndchte  des  Orients  (vol.  i.  p.  7 
seq.),s  like  Goethe  before  him,  he  undertakes  a  poetic  Hegira 
to  the  East: 

Entfliehen  lasst  mich,  fliehn  aus  den  Gewirren 
Des  Occidents  zum  heitern  Morgenland! 

So  he  visits  the  native  towns  of  FirdausT  and  Hafid  and  pays 
his  respect  to  their  memory,  and  then  penetrates  also  into 
India,  where  he  hears  from  the  lips  of  a  Buddhist  monk  an 
exposition  of  Nirvana  philosophy,  which,  however,  is  unac- 
ceptable to  him  (p.  in).  The  Oriental  scenes  that  are  brought 
before  our  mind,  both  in  this  poem  as  well  as  in  "  Memnon  " 
(vol.  vii.  p.  5  seq.),  are  of  course  portrayed  with  poetic  feel- 
ing as  well  as  scholarly  accuracy.  The  Aa/"i  who  owns  the 
wonderful  elixir, — which,  by  the  way,  is  said  to  come  from 
India  (p.  33), — and  who  interprets  each  vision  that  the  poet 
lives  through  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pessimistic  sceptic, 
shows  the  influence  of  'Umar  Xayyam.  In  fact  he  indulges 
sometimes  in  unmistakable  reminiscences  of  the  quatrains  of 
the  famous  astronomer-poet,  as  when  he  says: 

1  See  Lanman.  The  Milk-drinking  Hansas  of  Sanskrit  Poetry,  JAOS.  vol.  19.  2,  pp.  151- 
158.     Goose  would  be  a  better  translation  of  the  word  hamsa  than  swan. 
"  We  cite  from  the  edition  mentioned  on  p.  vii. 


77 

Wie  Schattenbilder,  die  an  der  Laterne, 

Wenn  sie  der  Gaukler  schiebt,  vortibergleiten, 

So  zieht  die  blode,  willenlose  Herde, 

Die  Menschheit  mein'  ich,  iiber  diese  Erde.     (p.  55.) 

This    is   very   much    the    same   thought   as   in   the   following 
quatrain  of  'Umar  (Whinf.  310;   Bodl.   108): 

d  Lo 


which  stands  first  in  Schack's  own  translation  of  the  Persian 
poet  and  is  thus  rendered  : 

Fiir  cine  magische  Laterne  ist  diese  gan/.e  Welt  zu  halten, 

In  welcher  wir  voll  Schwindel  leben; 
Die  Sonne  hangt  darin  als  Lampe;  die  Bildcr  aber  und  Gestaltcn 

Sind  wir,  die  d'ran  vortlberschweben.1 

In  his  IVei/igesdngc  (vol.  ii.  p.  149)  Schack  sends  a  greeting 
to  the  Orient;  in  another  one  of  these  songs  he  sings  the 
praises  of  India  (ib'id.  p.  232),  and  in  still  another  he  apos- 
trophizes Zoroaster  (ibid.  p.  133).  A  division  of  this  volume 
(ii.)  bears  the  title  LotosMtittcr.  The  sight  of  the  scholar's 
chamber  with  its  Sanskrit  manuscripts  makes  him  dream  of 
India's  gorgeous  scenery  and  inspires  a  poem  "  Das  inclische 
Gemach  "  (vol.  x.  p.  26). 

Oriental  stories  and  legends  are  also  offered,  though  not 
frequently.  "  Mahmud  der  Gasnevide"  (vol.  i.  p.  299)  relates 
the  story  of  the  great  sultan's  stern  justice."  "  Anahid"  (vol. 
vii.  p.  209)  gives  the  famous  legend  of  the  angels  Ilarut  and 
Mtirut,  who  were  punished  for  their  temptation  of  the  beauti- 
ful Zuhra,  the  Arabic  Venus.8  Schack  has  substituted  the  old 

1  Strophen  <les  Omar  Chijani,  Stuttg.  1878.  The  translation  itself  dates  from  an  earlier 
period  than  the  year  of  publication.  The  author,  speaking  of  the  delay  in  bringing  it  before 
the  public,  states  that  Horace's  nonumque  prematur  in  annum  could  be  applied  in  three- 
fold measure  to  this  work  (p.  118).  Hence  the  translation  was  made  about  1850,  or  a  little 
later. 

3  Herder,  Briefe  /ur  Beforderung  der  Humanitiit,  x,  ed.  Suphan,  vol.  18,  p.  2511;  De- 
Kuigncs,  op.  cit.  vol.  ii  p.  172;  Francis  Gladwm,  The  Persian  Moonshcc,  Calcutta,  iSr.i, 
Pers.  and  Kngl.  pt.  ii.  p.  3. 

3  See  Hammer,  Kundgrubeti,  vol.  i.  pp.  7,  8. 


78 

Persian  name  of  Anahita  (mod.  Pers.  nahld)  for  the  Arabic 
name,  and  has  otherwise  also  altered  the  legend  considerably. 
Schack  never  attempted  to  write  original  poems  in  Oriental 
form.  The  Hafizian  movement  did  not  excite  his  enthusiasm, 
and  for  the  trifling  of  the  average  Hafizian  singer  he  had  no 
use  whatever.  In  a  poem  by  which  he  conveys  his  thanks  to 
the  sultan  for  a  distinction  which  the  latter  had  conferred  on 
him  he  says: 

War  ich,  so  wie  Firdusi,  paradiesisch, 

Ich  bohrte  dir  die  Perlen  der  Kaside 

Und  schlange  dir  das  Halsband  der  Ghasele; 

Allein  wir  Deutschen  singen  kaum  hafisisch, 

Und  wenn  wir  orientalisch  sind  im  Liede, 

Durchtraben  wir  die  Wtisten  als  Kamele.    (Vol.  x.  p.  106.) 

Even  for  Bodenstedt's  Mirza  Schaffy  songs  he  has  no  great 
admiration : 

Gar  viel  bedeutet's  nicht,  mich  diinkt ! 
Dem  nur,  was  Riickert  langst  schon  besser  machte 
Und  Platen,  bist  du  keuchend  nachgehinkt.  (Vol.  x.  p.  47.) 


CHAPTER    XIII. 
CONCLUSION. 

Now  that  we  have  come  to  the  end  of  our  investigation,  it 
may  be  well  to  survey  briefly  the  whole  field  and  to  summarixe 
the  results  we  have  reached. 

We  have  seen  that  to  mediaeval  Europe  India  and  Persia 
were  lands  of  magic  and  enchantment;  their  languages  and 
literatures  were  utterly  unknown.  Whatever  influence  these 
literatures  exerted  on  that  of  Europe  was  indirect  and  not 
recognized.  Nor  did  the  Portuguese  discoveries  effect  an 
immediate  change.  It  was  only  by  slow  degrees  that  the 
West  obtained  any  knowledge  of  Eastern  thought.  The 
Gnlistan  and  Bustan  of  Sa'dl,  some  maxims  of  Bhartrhari  and 
a  few  scattered  fragments  were  all  that  was  known  in  Europe 
of  Indie  or  Persian  literature  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Then  the  epoch-making  discoveries  of  Sir  William  Jones 
aroused  the  attention  of  the  Western  world  and  laid  tin- 
foundations  of  a  new  science.  New  ideas  of  world-wide 
significance  presented  themselves  to  the  European  mind. 
Nowhere  were  these  ideas  welcomed  with  more  enthusi- 
asm than  in  Germany,  the  home  of  philological  scholarship. 
Herder  pointed  the  way,  and  bv  means  of  translations  and 
imitations  tried  to  introduce  the  treasures  of  Oriental  thought 
into  German  literatfire.  That  he  did  not  meet  with  unquali- 
fied success  was  due,  as  we  have  seen,  to  his  one-sided  didactic 
tendencv.  To  him,  however,  belongs  the  credit  of  the  firM 
impulse.  Then  Friedrich  Schlegel  founded  the  studv  <>t 
Sanskrit  in  Germany,  while  at  the  same  time  Hammer  was 
busily  at  work  spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  Persian  poets  in 
Europe.  The  effect  of  the  hitter's  work  was  instantaneous, 
for,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  it  was  his  translation  ot  Ha  lid  that 
inspired  the  composition  of  Goethe's  Hi  ran  and  thus  started 
the  Oriental  movement  in  Germain. 

We    have     examined     the     share     which      Ruckert.     Platen. 

79 


80 

Bodenstedt  and  Schack  had  in  this  movement  and  have 
touched  briefly  on  the  work  of  some  of  the  minor  lights.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  the  Persian  tendency  found  a  far  greater 
number  of  followers  than  the  Indie.  And  this  is  but  natural. 
It  was  far  more  easy  to  sing  of  wine,  woman  and  roses  in 
the  manner  of  Hafid,  such  as  most  of  these  poets  conceived 
this  manner  to  be,  than  to  assimilate  and  reproduce  the 
philosophic  and  often  involved  poetry  of  India.  Add  to  this 
the  charming  form  and  the  rich  rhyme  of  Persian  poetry  and 
we  can  readily  understand  why  it  won  favor.  But  we  can 
also  understand  readily  enough  why  most  of  the  so-called 
Hafizian  singing  is  of  very  inferior  quality.  Those  men  who 
did  the  most  serious  work  for  the  West-Eastern  movement  in 
Germany,  men  like  Riickert  and  Schack,  were  not  one-sided 
in  their  studies.  It  was  their  earnest  intention  to  offer  to 
their  countrymen  what  was  best  in  the  literatures  of  both 
India  and  Persia,  and  that  they  have  carried  out  this  inten- 
tion nobly  no  one  who  has  followed  this  investigation  will  be 
disposed  to  deny. 

It  only  remains  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  question  of  the 
value  of  this  Oriental  movement  to  German  literature.  We 
are  not  inclined  to  put  too  high  an  estimate  on  the  poetry 
that  arose  under  its  influence.  In  fact,  we  do  not  think  that 
it  has  produced  what  may  be  called  really  great  poetry.  It  is 
significant  that  the  fame  of  most  of  the  poets  considered  in 
this  investigation  does  not  rest  on  that  part  of  their  work 
which  was  inspired  by  Oriental  influence.  We  cannot  possi- 
bly agree  with  the  view  that  would  plaice  Goethe's  Divan  side 
by  side  with  the  master's  best  productions.  We  do  not  believe 
that  he  ever  would  have  become  famous  through  that.  Platen's 
Ghaselen  have  neither  the  merit  nor  the  reputation  of  his  son- 
nets or  his  ballads.  Even  among  the  Ghaselen  and  Ostliche 
Rosen  of  Riickert,  the  finest  poems,  such  as  "  Sei  mir  gegriisst  " 
and  "  Du  bist  die  Ruh,"  both  immortalized  by  the  genius  of 
Schubert,  are  precisely  those  that  are  least  Oriental,  and  we 
think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Liebesfruhling  exceeds  in  fame 
any  one  of  Riickert's  Oriental  collections,  including  the  Weis- 
heit  des  Brahmanen.  The  exception  to  the  rule  is  Bodenstedt. 
His  reputation  rests  almost  solely  on  the  Mirza  Schaffy  songs; 
but  it  will  scarcely  be  pretended  that  this  is  great  poetry. 


81 

From  what  has  been  said  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  chief 
value  of  the  Oriental  movement  does  not  consist  in  its  original 
contributions  to  German  literature,  but  rather  in  the  repro- 
ductions and  translations  it  inspired.  For  it  was  through 
these  that  the  treasures  of  Eastern  thought  were  made  the 
literary  heritage,  not  of  Germany  alone,  but  of  Europe.  As 
far  as  the  literature  of  Germany  itself  is  concerned,  this 
movement  was  of  the  greatest  significance,  in  that  it  introduced 
the  Oriental  element  and  thereby  helped  powerfully  to  impart 
to  German  letters  the  spirit  of  cosmopolitanism  for  which 
men  like  Herder  and  Goethe  had  so  earnestly  striven.  The 
great  writers  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  had  long  since  been 
familiar  to  the  German  people;  Shakespere,  Dante  and  Cal- 
deron  had  likewise  won  a  place  by  the  side  of  the  German 
classics  through  the  masterly  work  of  the*  Romanticists;  and 
now  the  spirit  and  form  of  a  new  literature — light  from  the 
East — was  brought  in  by  the  movement  which  has  been  the 
subject  of  this  investigation  and  assumed  its  place  as  a  recog- 
nized element  in  the  literature  of  Germany.  The  fond  dream 
of  a  Wcltlittcratiir  thus  became  a  reality,  and  the  German 
language  became  the  medium  of  acquaintance  with  all  that  is 
best  in  the  literature  of  the  world.  The  Oriental  movement 
is  the  clearest  proof  of  that  spirit  of  universality,  which  is  at 
once  the  noblest  trait  and  the  proudest  boast  of  German 
genius. 


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